Dawn Chaser
by Mystic Vaporeon
Summary: Sequel to "Twilight Always Falls" James has fought against the darkness and won, but his soul has not found rest. Both he and his beloved lie somewhere between black and light, and now must chase after their dawn.
1. The Lovers' Song

Dawn Chaser

Alright!  New fic from MV!  This should be interesting!  Hopefully you read Twilight always Falls, and are here for more of poor James' struggle against fate!  ^_~  This will be pretty long, and unfortunately I'm trying to write several fics at once.  (A major no no I know, but I wanna get 'em done!  ^_^) So stay tuned for, yeah um stuff, whatever this poor AP class homework ridden Vaporeon can squeeze from her tired tired brain!  That said, enjoy!

_"The past is nothing but a beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn." _

_ H.G Wells_

Light transcends, but it must be won.  It is elusive, deeming only those it sees fit deserving of its benevolence, those who know the scared prayer of goodness forged at the dawn of humanity.  Darkness too, had a solemn incantation of souls to its wake, and those who would call it forth were corrupted and black as the night itself.  The night, however, carried with it a serenity unmatched by any day, and was therefore the residing place of the fates.  Made of the black pitch they hailed from they wove their silver webs of life with nimble fingers, cut the glimmering strands in their silent cloaks of ebon, coming without warning and vanishing into the miasma from which they came with nary a presence to be felt.  Those who had experienced the darkness knew its fickleness well, and though many found their dawns, few escaped the thirst for their essence it had developed, and even fewer, attained a tangible dawn that would be theirs for eternity.

Dawn broke silently, her tacit and ancient covenant with all slumbering creatures on earth to bring light into their souls, and warmth to life finding a long shadow of a young man; but finding nothing obscure, she moved on, painting the world in the pastels of her wake.  The charred earth at the feet of the lone spirit stirred gently in the sweet morning breeze as he bent to sift through the remains, cursing silently under his breath as all he managed to uproot were illegible documents and folders so charred and brittle they crumbled and fell to dust in his hands.  His hands stopped at a nearly indecipherable piece of metal, and he picked it up, scowling at the just visible words, "Genetics Facility" before vengefully snapping the frail material in half.  

"Come on, _something must still be intact!" he whispered to himself, "The police'll show up any minute and I can't be here!"  _

Standing up with a small snap of vertebrae, he dusted his charcoal coated and gloved hands off against one another and snarled in frustration, knowing every last shred of the past had been cleansed away from the clearing where dawn had been born.  Shaking his head at the sound of car tires crunching in the gravel of the dirt forest road and pressing two fingers to his forehead, with an exasperated roll of his eyes, James was gone.

The kitchen of the small beachside flat he shared with Jessie and Meowth spun violently with color for a mere second after he reappeared there, forcing his hand to shoot to the counter to prevent his body from following his stomach to the floor.  A sharp stab of pain shot through his abdomen like a white-hot blade and he stifled a cry, the cold beads of sweat never falling after they beaded upon his suddenly pale forehead.  He knelt still for a moment, recollecting his senses after the sting had gone and, hoping no one had seen him buckle in pain, slowly looked up to the window.  The brilliant white-gold rays of morning sun filtering through the panes of glass of the window calmed him slightly as he was finally able to stand, and realizing Jessie would awaken soon, smiled as he looked to the closed door of their room.  

"Sorry I always sneak out Jess, but I always come back, I'll always come back," he whispered to himself, and made his way to awaken his beloved.

She slept peacefully under the thin covers on her side, a thin and wicked yet playful smile vaguely curved on her lips as she shifted gently in slumber, and it became quite obvious to her silent watcher that she was still deep within the pleasant surrealism of dreams.  James smiled adoringly at her as he gently eased his slender frame into the room, and deciding to spare her the knowledge of where he had gone that morning and why, slipped quietly back into his favorite boxers and the same worn white shirt he loved.  Mirroring her impish grin and pulling the soft white fabric over his head, James dove gregariously into the bed with a battle cry and caught his beloved within his grasp, letting the momentum take them both to the floor.  Jessie slept peacefully no longer, awakening with a shriek of surprise to suddenly find herself falling swiftly to land upon her back on the ground, a pair of glittering emerald irises staring lovingly from the familiar warmth perched atop her slim figure.  

"James!  Jeez!  What are you-" her words were replaced by his lips on her mouth, and hardly minding she had been cut off, fully welcomed the passionate early morning kiss as much as she returned it.  

"Well, good morning to you too," she whispered once James had broken away, "and to what do I owe this?"

James merely grinned, kissing her forehead lightly, smiling at the fragmented rays of warmth glistening in her braided crimson locks and dancing through her sleep glazed irises.  

"Only the fact that I love you, and I felt like it!" was his smug answer, yelping as it was answered by a violently playful upheaval of the body beneath him.  He soon found his role reversed, laughing brightly as Jessie pinned him beneath her, pressing her own gentle kiss to his lips and brushing a stray strand of glossy blue away from his face.  

"Well, I love you too, so I suppose that favor must be returned!" she whispered amiably, lowering her eyes and head to whisper seductively in his ear, "but right now… I'm hungry."  

Meowth's ears pricked up from the living room couch where he had chosen to spend the night rather than the foot of Jessie and James' bed at the sound of raucous laughter and the muted thuds of pillows hitting walls and he rolled his eyes, hoping his amorous friends would decide that they wanted breakfast at some point that morning and not just to play.

They eventually calmed their excitement when Jessie grimly recalled that Samuel Oak had requested James come to his lab that morning, and also realizing she was still famished, hurriedly herded her beloved out into the kitchen.  He gladly obliged, and when the cream colored cat was again awoken to the smell of pancakes from a distant utopia; he stretched and made his way to the kitchen as well.  Upon arriving in the white tiled and smoke gray accented room he discovered James had already mixed the batter for his favorite pancakes, and the sizzling as the tawny liquid hit the buttered pan was a warm and welcome sound to his ears.

"Mornin' Jess!  Jim!" he called brightly as he sauntered into the large and accommodating room.  

"Morning buddy!" James called, then turning over his shoulder and winking, "Morning Jess!"  She felt a warm sense of nostalgia pass over her, remembering the long time tradition of her early rising friend, exactly how much she had missed it and exactly how grateful she was to have James back, smiling tenderly at him before returning to the morning paper.  

"So, youse two gonna be gone at ol' Sammy's all day again?  It looks like its gonna be great beach weatha!  And I hoid Delia say she was gonna go out dere if it was!" the feline Pokemon added brightly, seating himself at the low dining table as Jessie's eyes brightened with looking up.  

"Why not?  Sam said he didn't want you long, right James?" she asked hopefully, perking and adding an air of pleading to her voice to which James smirked, never leaving the bubbling mounds of batter on the griddle.  

"I dunno Jessie, he has this sick obsession with poking at me you know!" he responded sarcastically, prodding at one of his pancakes experimentally with a spatula, "and frankly I like it!  I think I'd rather go sit in his cold laboratory in one of those paper hospital gowns and freeze my ass off on a metal examination table thank you very much!"  

Jessie snickered quietly and rolled her eyes, deciding the story he had been reading about the Team Rocket investigation was nothing she had not heard before and refolded the paper haphazardly to give to Meowth. 

 "Oh come on!  Be serious!  He really doesn't want you long does he?  It's been ages since we had a day to ourselves!" she queried, disappointment lacing her tones.

James sighed and nodded to himself, unable to recall the last day he had not spent at least some fraction of in Professor Oak's Pokemon research facility and flipped the last of the pancakes onto a plate.  

"Yeah I know Jess," he muttered dryly, setting the steaming platter down in front of his friends, "But you're right, Sam said he just wanted to get one last blood draw from my vines and he'd be done for today."  

He smiled cordially as he sat down at the table, finding his allotted share was all that was left upon the plate, and laughing gently as he served himself.  

"Good!  Then we can go to the beach today!  So let's hurry up and get down there before all the good spots are taken!" Jessie chirped, cramming a forkful of syrup drenched pancake into her mouth vivaciously.  

"Yay yay!  We should pack a picnic!  Meowth will take care a dat!" Meowth chimed in equally enthused to which James smiled softly.  

"It's a date then!" he added, Jessie's smiling and adoring eyes filling his heart with a warmth he was eternally grateful to have once again.  

"A date, James," she echoed lovingly.

Breakfast passed pleasantly rapidly and it was a prompt nine in the morning when they arrived at the large lab located just down the road leading to the beach, and past the home of their dear friends and same home young Ash Ketchum had begun his journey from, the same white fence now littered with flowers.  Meowth noticed with dismay that Delia's bike was absent from the porch, and lamented that perhaps she had taken their favorite secluded spot just outside their small flat beneath an ancient tree.  Jessie and James dismissed the complaint with laughter as they pulled into the driveway, and the goaded feline consented to wait in the car, having swiftly passed out the last time he had insisted accompanying his friend into the medical ward of Professor Samuel Oak's laboratory.  They entered quietly, knowing their new comrade would not mind if they came down to his quarters unannounced, remembering that he preferred not to have to answer the door as they stepped inside the pleasantly warm dwelling.

"Hey Jessie, hey James," Gary welcomed softly from his spot on the couch, his eyes never leaving the text of the book in his hands as the couple walked in, startling only Jessie who had not been able to sense his presence.  

"Hey Gary," James responded kindly, closing the door behind him, "How've you been?"  

"Okay I guess, I really miss him," the auburn-haired teen answered, laying the text across his lap as he sat up.  

"Yeah, we all do, and I bet his Pokemon do too, how's Bulbasaur doing?" Jessie added as kindly as she could, smiling knowingly at Ash's old rival.  

"Good good, it's as stubborn as ever, wouldn't even let me touch it the first month or so, but I think we're gaining trust.  Figures Misty and Brock would stick me with the bratty one eh?" he answered brightly, his affable tone letting the two older people know he was in actuality eternally grateful to have the Pokemon of his old friend, silent reflection the only communication until he spoke again gently, his voice almost undetectably laced with tears, "Grandpa's, uh, waiting downstairs for you."  

The adolescent trainer returned to his book after speaking to hide his sorrowful eyes, turning over on his side and placing an arm lazily over his head as he fingered the pendant hanging from his neck absent-mindedly, not watching the two others turn to the hall.  

"Thanks, see ya," James said softly, wrapping an arm gently about Jessie's waist as they proceeded somberly down the corridor to the laboratory.

They descended the brightly lit stairs in silence, a sinking feeling weighting the pit of James' stomach as he watched the walls flicker with images of Team Rocket headquarters, and directing his panicked eyes to the ground, he swore he saw his carpet nail protruding near the base of the wall.  He was forced to close his eyes the rest of the small trek as the colors once again swirled before his vision, a razor slit through his abdomen, and was accompanied by a new light-headedness that whitened the young man's perception as he entered the quiet facility.  The ailments all dissipated as James spotted the familiar sight of Samuel hunched over his microscope and shook his head lightly, dismissing his pains of that day to fatigue after having to teleport a long distance with a smile.  

"Hey Sam!  Let's make this quick, we wanna go meet Delia down at the beach!" Jessie piped the instant they had closed the door behind them, and James sniggered softly as the professor jumped, twisting the knob of the instrument and cracking the glass slide beneath it.

He looked up bewildered, but upon seeing Jessie and James standing patiently in the doorway as he gathered his wits, leaned exasperatedly back into his chair while placing a hand over his heart.  

"Jeez Jessie!  Don't do that to an old man!  You'll give me a heart attack one of these days!" Samuel joked good-naturedly as the duo joined him.  

"Heh, sorry, but we're in a hurry today!  James said you don't want him long, and I'm holding you to it!" Jessie proclaimed fervently, crossing her arms across her chest and shoving the person in question forward.  

"I promised we'd go, " he explained, rolling his eyes and ruffling Jessie's hair affectionately, to which her formerly closed eyes opened a mere presumptuous slit to emphasize her point.  The old scientist laughed amusedly, standing with a loud groan, a snapping of old joints, and gesturing to the chair he had once occupied.  

"Alrighty, we'll just do it right here then, sit down, and let's see that vinewhip!" he chortled as James obeyed with a grin, the whirring of one of the slick green stalks as he released it sounding behind the older man as he turned to retrieve a delicate needle.

"Better not look Jess, Meowth fainted dead away last time I had blood drawn from my vines!" James commented with a wink as Samuel sifted gently through his drawer to find the box of cotton balls he swore he remembered putting there.  

"I'm a big girl James!  But do you need me to hold your hand?" she replied deviously, her voice dripping in friendly sarcastic honey.  

"I wouldn't mind that, but I would really prefer you'd ho-"  

"Okay James, we know where you're going with this one," Samuel's voice interrupted suddenly, the blue-haired young man's face flushing brightly at being caught, Jessie's raucous laughter deepening the slight shade of pink.  

"Pervert," he heard her mutter with a grin, rolling her sapphire eyes as a convenient excuse to look away as the old professor took the vine dangling in space gently into his palm.  

"Okay, you know the drill, just relax and it'll be over in just a second," he said, his voice softened with concentration.

James looked away while Professor Oak dabbed the area he selected with an alcohol soaked cotton ball, finding he himself experienced a touch of nausea each time he watched the sickly green tinted blood from his vines creep slowly into the clear syringe and winced as he felt the cold prick of metal enter his body.  Whether it was the fact that his life fluid had been so tainted by the twilight project, or that it was simply the fact that he had the blood of many beings flowing through his veins that made him ill, he did not know, but the fact that Jessie too could not bear to watch the draw, caused a small smile to coil his lips as he felt the needle exit the slick plant material.  

"Alright, all done James, and I happen to know Delia likes your favorite spot very much, so you'd best go kick her off before she gets too comfortable!"  Before James even knew the procedure had begun he heard Samuel's seemingly distant but cheerful voice ring in his ears, finally looking up as a mildly pallid Jessie hopped off the counter she had decided to perch herself upon to join him, and stood, slightly unsteady.  A flash of fire from somewhere deep inside of him felt foreign, but not unseen, as a dream suddenly come to life that he could not remember but only feel, and he realized with horror, that it was the same pain he had felt earlier.  

Jessie noticed as James put a hand to his slightly pale forehead weakly, squeezing the alarm framed emerald eyes shut only momentarily as if light were painful, then shaking his head to clear it before turning to her and motioning to the door.  

"You okay James?" she asked uneasily.  

"Huh?  Oh, oh yeah, I'm fine.  This always makes me a bit woozy," he answered, looking up, smiling and holding up his hands defensively, "Don't worry about it Jess, you're just as pale as I am, I think we'll be fine as soon as we get out into the fresh air.  Fresh beach air!"  

Professor Oak watched Jessie smiled wryly and nodded, leaping for the stairs with a just barely audible cry of, "Race ya!" James taking off on her heels with a piteous retaliation of, "No fair!  You got a head start!" the old scientist shaking his head in mock disapproval with a chuckle, re-capping the syringe.

His expression fell as he noted the sickly green and brown tint in the otherwise red blood, his stomach twisting as prayed that small glass vial he held would not in turn hold a key for destruction.  

"Oh Jessie, James, your fight is only beginning, hang on James, this is only the beginning," he whispered as he gently placed the syringe into a rack in the freezer next to its brothers, all filled with samples of the same source, and quickly skimming over the story they told.  Unable to read further, he closed the small metal door with a satisfying click and turned away, only then remembering he had broken the slide of James' blood earlier and made no move to remove the shards of glass from his instrument, merely switching off its light and walking solemnly toward the door.  He listened to his shoes' clacking against the bare-walled laboratory and sighed, remorseful at having to continuously recall James to a place that he knew poignantly reminded him of his ordeal in the Team Rocket genetics facility, a particularly gruesome description of the holding cell area he had lived in for over a year suddenly coming to mind as he ascended the stairs.  He wondered what divine force had allowed the gentle young man to survive against the darkness that threatened to swallow his being completely, the strange notion that perhaps it really had been love as he so often answered when asked percolating into his thoughts and he smiled.  Willing James' spirit to stay alit, his love to never die and carry his body onward, Samuel Oak darkened his work area and shoved his hands brightly into his back pockets, chortling and thumbing his chin as he thought he should like to join the group at the beach.

Jessie and James were already heavily engrossed in shrieking loudly and chasing each other through the waves when he arrived, chuckling as the red haired young woman took a dramatic leap forward, catching her beloved's waist in her grasp and causing both of them to plunge with a spectacular splash into the surf.  He heard Delia's and Meowth's amused chortling as well, and followed the sound of it over a small sandy hill to where they were both perched upon a plaid blanket, the remnants of an obviously cat prepared picnic lunch still scattered about.  

"Ah, to be young and in love again," he whispered wistfully, shaking his head as he noticed the older auburn-haired woman turn around as she sensed his presence.  

"Oh Sam!  I didn't know you were coming down!  Jess and James said you looked pretty busy when they left!" she called cheerfully.  

"Yeah well I decided to take a bit of a break!" he called back, jogging slightly until he reached the blanket, crossing his legs and sitting down carefully, "They looked like they were going to have fun, so I figured 'what did I do to deserve being locked up in that lab all day?'"  

Delia laughed heartily, patting her old friend's shoulder affectionately as he took the bottle of water she offered him.  

"I thought you were supposed to be studying the 'transformation', or whatever it was.  I hear it killed someone as well as Pikachu," she added, suddenly serious.  

"Indeed, Delia, quite the tragedy indeed," he commented softly, careful as not to awaken the soundly sleeping feline Pokemon next to him and deciding to spare the forlorn looking woman the grisly details.  

"They love each other so much, they don't deserve to be torn apart like that again.  I still remember when Ash's father died, I was so devastated, Jessie shouldn't have to feel that again, she already knows that pain, and after what poor James went through, he deserves to live, be happy, and be with Jessie," Delia whispered reverently, and Samuel thought she never looked more beautiful in the crimson-bronze light of sundown, her strong smile cast at Jessie and James, snuggled close to one another on a blanket of their own.  

"Indubitably.  Their love is one in a million, it will take much more to break it then merely some sick old man's twisted dream," he answered reverently his gaze meeting hers as she leaned gently into his embrace.  

"Will he be okay Sam?" Delia asked quietly as the couple in question decided to return from the playful waters of the sea, plopping practically upon their place closer to it.  

"I… I don't know," came the sincere and fearful answer, the two souls lighted upon the twilight illuminated hill needing no more communication as they cast their despairing gazes down to the beach. 

Meowth looked up at his two friends, watched as they shared a slow and passionate kiss, holding each other as if a violent force threatened to tear them apart again, and they had finally solidified their solemn vows to never again to let go, sighing deeply and inaudibly at realizing the truth behind Samuel's words.  

"See?  I told you this is exactly what we needed, now acknowledge my rightness," Jessie whispered quietly, closing her eyes as she felt James' lips graze her neck gently, leaning into his warmth even further as he pulled her close.  

"Okay okay Princess, you were right!  We did need this," James laughed brightly, smiling and brushing Jessie's wet crimson locks behind her ear as she joined the mirth.  

"Now there's no need for sarcasm!  And you shall address me as 'your highness' peasant," she responded cheerfully, her glittering azure irises illuminated by the sun as it cast a scarlet veil across her face, "I used to see the day I would get to chase you around in the water and then snuggle on the beach and watch the sunset together!  The best part was what we did after, but then I'd wake up and we'd have to go chase after some yellow rat and a bunch of twerpy kids…"  

She burst into hysterics immediately following, and James laughed loudly with his beloved, pulling her abruptly down next to him as he flopped backward, delighting in her shriek of surprise and her initial reaction of throwing her arms about his neck.  

"You're ever so bad Jessica Burkely," he whispered with a smirk as she touched the end of her nose to his, "But I love you so much."  

Kissing the spot where her own nose had once been and brushing the wisp of cerulean hair always between her beloved's eyes, Jessie nodded and closed her eyes proudly.  

"Oh I do enjoy it so, and it's just so easy to pick on you!" she replied deviously as she felt James' arms enclose her waist, "But I love you too James, I love you too."  

"We're Jessie, James, and Meowth, best friends forever right?" James asked gently, leaning forward and caressing Jessie's cheek as the red spark of a rebirth from the vengeful sun was reborn in her eyes.  

"Forever," she promised, closing the ruby lined sapphires as she felt James' soft lips upon her own, crushing the ember into a brilliant dust which was scattered to the wind.

One soul joined was present for the sun's reckoning, the setting of one day, a death for renaissance and as it left the world for twilight, it found all were gone from the shores of its watery grave, all safe from its hail of fiery arrows of fate as it gently sunk beneath the velvet cover of the ocean.  Ravenous bolts of furious energy resounded from its radius, reaching with its gnarled and nimble fingers for the souls that had blatantly defied its reckoning, desperate for one last stance.  It shattered through the glass pane of a window, and through the shades already drawn to keep its blazing fury where it belonged, a single ray of scarlet light pierced through and found its mark.  It seared through a heart, a soul, and buried its essence within, a malignancy that would fester and grow until maturity, when it would become the twilight born of its mother the sunset, the same parent as its light sister dawn.  Afraid of its sibling, dawn shied away, as James finally felt the beam of hot light upon his chest, finding it alleviated the dull pain within his body.

Samuel sat hunched over the still broken slide in his laboratory, having only swept them away in a panic as he had loaded a new sheet of glass upon the instrument, his wavering eye pressed close into the lens.  

"No, this… This can't be, not yet, not yet…" he whispered to himself, cupping a hand gently over his mouth as he leaned back into his chair, "No… This can't be true!"  

Black rays of shadow laced with the silver of the moon fell across the old man's tear-filled eyes from the blinds drawn tightly over the windows, crawling across the slide only to be chased away by the brilliance of the light, which illuminated a drop of ailing brown and green tinted blood.  They faltered and clamored away in the wake of a far more omnipotent force, lurking nearby and waiting as they witnessed the light flicker, then dim, surging back to their prey as Samuel stood from unplugging his microscope.  He stood, silver hair glinting in the light of its own hues, saddened eyes gazing balefully at the white scythe of the moon rising steadily into the ebon strata and clenching his fists at his sides.  

"You've conquered the darkness, but you must win your light, fight with all you have, this will not be an easy battle, and win, one soul rests on this."


	2. Fire and Ice

Author's note: Ah!  Welcome to part 2!  This one's a bit longer, so there's a bit more of the actual story coming to play here.  I must warn you however, there is a love scene at the very end, but it's tastefully done I assure you.  If it bothers you, skip it, you won't miss any of the story.  That said, on with it then!  ^_^

Dawn Chaser

Part 2: Fire and Ice

_"He who dies a thousand deaths meets the final hour with the calmness of one who approaches a well-remembered door."~ Heywood Brown_

A silent whisper, a harmonious tone rang out in the darkness, touched the pale cheek of a young man sleeping within its embrace and called his name gently.  He stirred under the silky touch, and opened his sleep glazed emerald irises  experimentally as he was called again, a sudden throb of dull pain pulsing through his skull as he sat up carefully, arms still wrapped tightly about the red-haired woman still sleeping peacefully beside him.  Strangely enticed and beckoned by its fleeting sweetness, and cautiously laying Jessie carefully at his side, James slipped soundlessly from bed and crept toward the glimmering blue window panes, looking back to see the room dim to shades of a warm inviting cerulean.  Smiling fondly at the familiar scene, he turned back to the window, pressing his palm against the cool glass and spreading his fingers until the brilliant disk of light was just visible between them.  A fog born of the heat of his hand clouded the light until it was merely a white smear and James took it away, leaving the moon once again brilliant, a perfect sphere in the heart of the faint outline of his palm and fingers which illuminated the frame of mist.  The voices sounded once again, blending into a gentle chime of a melody, and he closed his eyes to listen, a sudden feeling of soaring dizziness washing over him as he reached gently out for the wall to support himself.  

"W-What are you saying?" he whispered to them, "I can't hear you, I don't understand."

The whispers died away as James opened his eyes again, finding his handprint gone from the windowpane, replaced by a clearly audible melody in his ears and a warm presence behind him he recognized well.  A pair of gentle arms encircled about his neck affectionately, and he smiled euphorically as he felt Jessie's soft lips brush his cheek briefly, the confusion and almost fear inspired by the voice vanishing as he leaned back into the warmth of her body.  

"You know, there's something a whole lot prettier than the moon in bed," she whispered enticingly, chuckling softly as James turned around to meet her gaze.  

"Yeah I know, but I could have sworn-" he stopped abruptly, his eyes drifting to a distant place as he froze, listening once again to his clandestine chorus.  

"You could have sworn…?  What?" she asked genuinely curious, patiently awaiting an answer but speaking in a goaded tone when James' eyes slowly slid shut, "James…?  Hey James…?  Earth to James!"

Jessie shook the blue-haired young man in front of her gently, slightly miffed he was seemingly completely ignoring her, but jumping slightly as his emerald eyes snapped suddenly open, staring blankly, a devious and wistful grin on his lips.  It faded however as his abstracted eyes wandered upward to find the disapproving scowl upon his beloved's lips, hands placed haughtily on her hips as she tapped her foot gently on the cool wooden floor of the bedroom.  

"Oh, hi Jess… Did I just sort of…" he trailed off embarrassedly.  

"Go off into space just now?  Yeah, you did.   Now tell me what you heard," Jessie answered more kindly, seeing James' slightly pink cheeks as he looked away to the window, still grinning.  

"It's nothing to worry about, it's a song, a beautiful song, don't you hear it?" he asked softly, his emerald irises glittering in the silver moonlight.  Jessie looked disenchanted as it reflected into her own eyes, sidling closer to the man she loved near the window, closing her eyes as she felt his arm snake lovingly about her waist and shaking her head.  

"I don't hear anything," she muttered disappointedly, frowning sadly out at the gently wafting leaves of the trees which sung the only incoherent melody she could decipher.

James mirrored her disheartened expression, looking to the same tree which spoke to him in a clear and jubilant plea to the heavens for the sun, and smiled as an idea struck him the moment he realized it was his favorite.  Grabbing Jessie's wrist gently to gain her attention, he smiled kindly as he edged invitingly toward the door.  

"Come on Jess, I'll show you something!" he said impishly as his beloved begrudgingly followed his merry prancing out of their room.  

"Uh okay, but what?" she asked, clasping her hand around his as she felt his fingers entwine with hers.  

"Just follow me, you'll see," James answered, saying no more as they stepped out into the damp coolness of the backyard of the small beachside flat.

The crash of the waves against a soft sandy shore resonated pleasantly in James' ears a perfect harmony with the song, stopping to feel the benevolent winds embrace him adoringly, sweeping a few strands of loose cerulean hair across his smiling face as he closed his eyes.  The melody again permeated his psyche, filling his senses with a brilliant flash of warm gold, a sudden feeling of being wrapped in its munificence, letting it saturate his being with the sweet caress of love and light.  

"Oh Jess, it's so beautiful, so beautiful," he whispered in veneration, Jessie smiling at the delighted look upon his features and was glad, simply because he was.  

"Now I really wish I could hear it," she commented softly, looking out the silver illuminated surf pensively, and not noticing James' glimmering emerald eyes snap open.  

"This is what I wanted to show you!  Come on, over there!" he piped brightly, taking Jessie's hand once again, and ignoring her shriek of surprise as he traversed the small grassy knoll, the wind whistling through his hair and the cool grass pleasing beneath his bare feet, to the tree.

James released her as they reached the roots, leaping nimbly from the ground to the lowest branch which was still several feet above his head, and executing a lissome flip forward and up to land solidly upon his feet.  He remained crouched for balance a mere second before standing to his full height, careful to work his slender form between the smaller limbs above him, and turned around to smile triumphantly to the crimson-haired woman beneath him.  Jessie could only stare, her jaw agape, aghast eyes wide open as the only word she could think of quietly left her lips, 

"Whoa…"  James laughed, flicking his wrist to send a vine down to the ground, and smiling fondly at her as she took it gently, mirroring his gaze as she felt the slick plant coil gently about her waist.  

"Being part Pokemon has some definite advantages," James commented affably, Jessie chuckling and the vine tightening as he tugged it to ensure it was secure, "Is that okay?"  

"Yep, fine, pull away!" Jessie called back, and James gripped the vine gently as he realized it was aching.

It whirred cordially as it retracted, and Jessie felt her body tense when her feet left the ground daintily, but relaxing as the short trip ended with James' outstretched palm.  

"Here, take my hand," he offered gently, helping Jessie the rest of the way up to his once private perch.  She fell gratefully into James' arms once on the solid branch, allowing him to wrap one tenderly about her waist as he beckoned her to sit, and look out upon the water.  

"It's beautiful isn't it?  I come up here to think usually, feel the winds and be by myself, but I want to share it with you, Jessie," he began, taking her hand tenderly and forcing himself to look away from her, "Now, just look out to the moon, watch the patterns it makes on the water, open yourself to it, and let the wind inside of you.  Then close your eyes, and think about something, anything pleasant, something you love, something close to your heart, think about what it means to you, find that place in your soul, let everything here touch it.  And just listen…"  Jessie smiled and placed one hand upon James' cheek, gently stroking it with a thumb and drawing his gaze back to her own, and when he put his hand over hers, sidled close enough into the warmth of his body to press her lips to his tenderly.  

The blue water, the silver moonlight, the gentle rustling of the leaves in the tree above her, all blended to nothingness in the slowly growing white void behind the calenture conjured in the kiss, a spark of warmth born between Jessie and James' joined hands as they gently pulled away.  Emeralds met sapphires as the world disappeared, and the last thing Jessie saw before being forced to shut her eyes in the presence of the unbearably bright haze, was a sly grin playing on James' lips and a flame of childish mischief burning in his irises.  The white silence enveloped her for only a few moments before a gentle voice rose upon the gusts of the winds, singing a soft melody which soothed her tense body, and filled her being with the placid heat of the kiss they had shared.  Though it was friendly, playing with her hair in a jovial dance of the ages, and calming the waves to a euphonious harmony to the steady crescendo of the mournfully haunting, yet strangely comforting song, the young woman was still afraid of the curious presence it had in her mind.  James felt his beloved's lithe muscular body coil in aptness to strike in fear, and held her gingerly, running a hand through her hair and kissing her forehead reassuringly.  

"Come on Jess, open your eyes, don't be afraid, I'm right here," James' soft assurance added its sweet tones to the harmony already in place in the fragrant night air.

Jessie nodded, and squeezed her eyes shut tightly one last time to clear her thoughts and tightening her hold on James, she ignored his squirming in protest and very cautiously slid one eye open.    The beautiful melody that filled her body with its sovereignty welcomed her to its grace with a flurry of silver bolts of light glimmering from the sea, and a sweetly scented wind to carry them to her fingertips, bursting with a pleasant coolness upon her skin.  The couple laughed brightly as the mist of fiery silver swirled merrily about their bodies, exciting all senses and heightening them until they both felt intoxicated by it.  Jessie felt as James said she should, all that she kept near to her heart joining the chorus of passion, and smiling warmly as James cupped his hands daintily about hers, their joined souls catching a silver star within their grasp.  She looked idolatrously into his eyes which reflected the brilliant light from their hands and watched a smirk creep onto his lips at her own delighted grin, suddenly feeling as if the moment had been her entire life and being blazing from a single melody of light.  

"Oh James, it's so gorgeous!  My god you're amazing, how on earth did you-? Oh never-mind, I don't even want to know!  That would take all the magic out of it!  Thank you so much for showing me this," she breathed, awe-struck as he closed their palms about the glowing ember, illuminating their tightly clasped hands with an ethereally pulsating light.  

"It's something of beauty, and one always wants to share them with the one they love," he whispered in response, smiling lovingly at her as she leaned into his side and rested her head against his, "I love you."

Jessie sighed contentedly but did not answer as her hands were freed, the ember long since diminished and expired within her choking grasp, but the pleasant cerulean aura still lighting the area with long shadows of the same hue.  It looked to her like a forbidden paradise, something she had seen only in her dreams that she could not remember clearly until the moment it had become reality, and her seemingly intangible and inconceivable innermost fantasies had finally come to fruition.  

"Will it be like this forever James?" she asked quietly, an air of relaxed distance to her voice.  

"I don't know Jessie," was his only sincere answer as the young woman smiled amorously at the moon.  

"Well I want it to stay like this, forever, and if we both want it to and believe, then it will!" she chirped enthusiastically, carefully easing onto her hip to face James completely, and cupping his chin in both hands to look into his eyes, "You're so beautiful…  Just like this.  I want to stay like this with you, always."  James chortled softly to himself, looking through the veil of dying chrome embers to the smiling face of the woman he loved and taking her hands in his, kissing them both tenderly before resting them upon the rough bark the sat perched upon.  

"So do I Jess, and miracles can happen, we both know that, and we both believe, there's no need to be afraid anymore," he answered, leaning forward to fold Jessie into a tight embrace, which she more than willingly returned.  

"I'm not afraid of anything," she responded boldly.  

"Heh, I know Jess, I love you and I will always, always be by your side, I promise," James whispered fervently, and Jessie rewarded him with a furtive grin, a gentle kiss on the neck and an ardent murmur of, "I love you, James."

The lovers said no more as they watched the silver spectacle burn brilliantly one last time before expiring, and the entire night sky fell to earth at the base of their tree, slain by the first lances of dawn thrown from behind the veil of the ocean.  The song left as well, its story completed and buried forever to live eternally in the hearts of two believers, forlorn that they did not yet understand.  It tried vainly to decipher its cryptic messages the duo could only hear as music, but it was chased away by the light, and the fact that Jessie and James were long since gone from their perch, snuggled close in each other's arms beneath the thick quilt upon their bed.  Devastated, the last traces of the mournful harmony left the land, sending a final fiery arrow of fury through James' abdomen, and wailing in penitence as he suppressed the pain to conceal it from his beloved.

Trying desperately not to cry out, James squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could and tightened his grip about the dozing Jessie in his arms, gently sliding one from across her waist to wrap it about his stomach.  He felt the color drain from his face as he opened his eyes at length, only to find they blurred instantly and swam with color, and knew then, twilight was coming for the prize it had the smallest taste of, and could then not be satiated without.  

"No…" James breathed, eyes stinging with tears he vowed to never shed, "This isn't happening, I'm fine…"  Jessie muttered something unintelligible in her, then obvious, slumber, and seizing the opportunity as she gently shifted away from James' body, he slipped his other arm from around her.  He staggered toward the adjacent bathroom, arm still wrapped tightly over his stomach, and swung the door soundlessly behind him, leaving it ajar and falling gratefully forward to land upon his knees, sweat dampened and pain chilled forehead resting on the white porcelain of the basin.  

James' senses returned willfully, and the pain ebbed, but the sick feeling deep inside his soul remained as he realized the small bouts of anguish were getting more acute and longer in duration each time.  Banging his head against the immaculately clean sink, the young man finally decided to stand, wincing at his disheveled and mildly ill-looking appearance staring back at him through the crystal of the mirror.  He recalled Pikachu's final words to him as he turned the cold water tap gently, barely remembering what she had said, but still hearing her weak strained voice, and the message of infinite wisdom he could not understand, but knew was not the babble of the dying as Deirdre had thought.  The small and painful speech still rung as a blur through his ears as he bent down to splash his face, readily losing its pallor, with the icy water, rubbing his black-rimmed eyes and bringing his hands down in front of his face.  James stopped them in midair, the scars suddenly appearing glaringly white in the dim light of early morning, and gently turned them over to examine the backs, which were still pure, and unmarred.  

James wondered, as the slits of blue radiance played upon his face, and over the white tale of pain upon his palms, if one could have scars that never felt a wound, and also, if it was possible to have wounds that never left a scar.  He smirked and looked back out the open door to the bolt of crimson hair, which was the only part of the woman he loved visible, cascading about her still form still wrapped tightly in bed, and ran a hand once through his tangled blue tresses.  

"My scars are only a story Jess, and so are yours, all they can do is show us the way, they can't change the people we are, they can't change what we are together," he whispered gently, treading gently until he reached the edge of the bed, sitting gently down upon it to lay a hand on her cheek gently, "My beautiful, strong Jessie, who taught me James matters, and not to be afraid of anything."

James brushed Jessie's fiery locks away from her pleasantly smiling face and leaned down to kiss the ruby lips of his elusive jewel gently, but his own lips stopped short as the wild jangling of the telephone shattered his peaceful and reverent silence.  Startled, he leapt nimbly from his perch and dove to pick up the receiver without awakening the young woman still blissfully enclosed in the realm of her pleasant reveries.

Jessie became suddenly aware of a small movement of the bed, enough to awaken her just enough to hear James' voice muffled by sleep, then the phone ringing only once somewhere distant, then James' voice again as he picked it up.  Rolling over as she opened her eyes only slightly, she was welcomed cordially by a cool blue glow from the window, and the pleasant sound of a bird chirping in the tree she had sat with her beloved only a few hours prior.  She still felt the beauty of the moment buried deep within a sacred and radiantly lit place in her heart she had allowed few to see and touch, and where she held James close, her happiness manifesting itself as a broad grin upon her lips.  She stretched and rolled over into the warm area James had left, burying her face into his pillow and into his side of the bed, wrapping the sky blue covers tightly about herself to keep the area warm for him.  She inhaled slowly, breathing in the scant scent of his favorite flower and smiled, rolling her eyes under closed lids fondly as she remarked to herself, "_He still smells like roses."_

The muffled, but still obvious slam of the receiver startled Jessie awake before she could even shut her eyes completely to deliberately go back to sleep in James' side of the bed, the sound of it almost foreboding as the precursor to the dull footsteps leading back to the bedroom.  She smiled as James swept in, but it quickly faded as she noted he was ghostly pale, and spoke naught a word to her as he hurriedly flung open his dresser to pull out the first garments he could snatch.  

"James?  What-" she began, but was cut off as he shut the bathroom door harshly, yet strangely soundlessly behind him.  Scowling at the white painted wood, she huffed quietly to herself and slipped from bed, noting grimly that the sky was frosted in a thin dismal layer of gray clouds as she padded gently into the kitchen.

"Hey, uh Jess, do you- Do you know what's up wid Jimmy dis mornin'?" Meowth asked timidly from his perch atop the counter as she entered.  

"He just seemed a little peeved, why?" she retorted drowsily, rubbing her eyes and reaching for the glass coffee pot sitting next to the sink.  

"Well, he got a call just a few minutes ago, the phone woke me up, and I tought I'd come in an' get somethin' ta eat, cause I was sure it was Sam wanting him to come down soz he wouldn't be able ta make breakfast, but when I asked him he about bit my head clean off!" the feline explained plaintively, narrowing his eyes in the direction his friend had stalked off.  

"He wouldn't answer me either, I wonder if something's wrong," Jessie added softly, growing apprehensive at the mere thought.

The coffee had brewed completely and a light rain began to fall before James finally slunk discreetly into the kitchen, his face still ashen, eyes sorrowful and rimmed in black only until he realized Jessie had been staring listlessly at the door waiting for him to enter.  He smiled appropriately as soon as he met with her reproachful gaze, his mildly flustered voice waveringly only slightly as he joined her at the table behind his awaiting mug.  

"Morning Jess!" he piped cheerfully, the words actually easing his spirit.  

"Good morning!" she responded lightly with a small smile, noting that James' hair was damp.  Jessie's heart sank at the sight, knowing that he had showered, which most likely meant he was going to see Professor Oak.  

"So, uh, who was on the phone this morning?" she managed to inquire off-handedly, sipping her coffee and watching the silver trails of rain slither down the window panes.

James was lucky she missed the momentary look of horror upon his face that she knew there had been a call that morning, and he changed it quickly to one of passiveness, warming his cold fingers with the warmth of his coffee cup as he swallowed hard before answering.  

"It was Sam, he, uh, wants me to come down today- All day…" he managed softly, wincing at Jessie's guilefully hidden disappointment that was all too obvious to him.  

"Oh," was her only response before a long silence, then a cheerful smile replacing her formerly forlorn look, "Well, if he needs to see you, then he needs to see you!  Do you want me to come with?"  James smiled at her warmly, and shook his head rising from his seat and abandoning his coffee to wrap his arms about Jessie's shoulders affectionately, and held her as if it were a forbidden pleasure.  She began to inquire, her own mug clattering the rest of the way to the table from where her hands had been carrying it to return the passionate embrace.  

"James I-" she began, confused,  but was cut off softly.  

"No, Jess, I think it's better if you stay here today, but I'll be back as soon as I can I promise!  I know I'm fine, I know it, this isn't going to beat us Jessie, I won't let it," he whispered into her ear, sinking into her arms as he felt them snake about his waist at last.  

"I know James, I know.  Hurry back okay?" she replied lovingly, pulling away and brushing James' silken locks away from his face tenderly as an excuse to caress his cheeks.  

"I will, don't worry.  I should get going though," he said quietly at last, closing his eyes as he felt Jessie's lips gently brush his own.  

"All right, go on then, don't want to be late now do you?" she whispered, ushering him to the door with a gentle smile and an amiable wave of her hands.  James returned the grin and chortled softly to himself as he stood, beaming at the strength of her will and stroking her cheek affectionately with a thumb.  Gazing lovingly into her eyes, never wavering, he bent down to embrace her once more, letting the warmth and feeling of her body and being seep into his own, and knowing that her fire was his, his water hers, bound by ties forged in both.  

"I love you," James whispered, closing his eyes.  

"I love you too, moron," Jessie laughed in response, "So get going already!  The sooner you go, the sooner it's all over with and you get back!"

James nodded, caught the keys to their car as Meowth pitched them in his direction and opened the door to the garage, drawing in a deep breath and turning mournfully over his shoulder to gaze longingly at Jessie who smiled as the feline Pokemon took his place at the table.  He mirrored it, finally turning to go as he ran a hand once through his hair and stepped silently through the door, already feeling the cold leach into his body.

The sun rose in a brilliant spurt of golden fire, gallantly traversed the sky, then was slain by a sword of darkness, its blood staining the clouds as it sank to its grave beneath the horizon of water.  Jessie sat watching, perched in trepidation upon a low branch of her new favorite tree, and attempting vainly to forget the rain patting lightly upon her pale cheeks and the feeling of a vast void opening somewhere in her body.  It thirsted for light, and she sat stolidly, watching in horror as it consumed the sunset and subconsciously wishing that the sun would never set again, willing it to stay above the horizon until James returned.  

"Please, not yet," she breathed fervently, "Wait for James, don't set yet, don't let it be dark when he comes home.  Please…  James, come back."  Defiant darkness set, only to find Jessie gone from her branch, safe from its coiling tendrils of malignance, and alone.

No one heard the door open nearly silently long after day had turned to night, as James slipped quietly in, wishing with all his being for his presence to go unnoticed until he could be alone.  He felt a dark hand's fierce grip upon his heart and body as he stifled a cry of anguish at seeing his home, a place unchanging and surrounded and saturated by the love he and Jessie shared, and the mutual companionship with Meowth.  It was cast in black and blue shadows, the only light coming from across the small living room where the embers of a dead fire lay smoldering and furiously clinging to life and beneath the closed door of the bedroom he and Jessie shared.  James opened his mouth to say something to himself, or perhaps to call for Jessie, he could not say, but only a small incoherent utterance left them, and unable to bear the sight of his happiness any longer, shut his eyes against the tears that threatened to fall and broke into a run for the doorway to the back porch.  He barely missed Jessie peak furtively from behind the wood doorframe, a confused and almost hurt expression upon her features as she watched her beloved flee, her only word a small whisper to herself of, "James?"

She crept quietly out the door that had been left open, apprehension gripping her nerves, and caring little of the cold wet grass beneath her bare feet as she stepped off the porch, she pressed a hand to her chest as she looked up.  James sat in their tree, the same spot he had brought her the night before, knees drawn tightly to his chest with his forehead resting gently atop them, his ghostly silhouette framed in the silver light of the moon.  She looked sadly at him, remembered only then he said he went there to be alone, and keeping his wishes in mind, silently prowled to the base of the trunk, where even though she knew he would be able to sense her, Jessie felt the sorrow surrounding him.  She pressed her back into the damp bark, and slowed her breathing, as if it would help conceal herself, watching the small clouds of vapor from her throat rise with a silver sheen, and listening intently, was horrified to discover that James was crying.  

"He's wrong, he's wrong, he has to have made some mistake…  No, no, this can't happen…" he moaned to himself, "Please, not again, I don't want to face that again…  Don't do this to me!  Don't do this to her!"

Jessie gasped and winced as James' mournful and choked speech escalated into a livid scream to the heavens, and could stay silent no longer, stepping out enough to see him and reach out to him.  

"James?  James, what's wrong?" she asked as if she had just arrived, fighting back her tears with a vengeance.  He looked up suddenly, his brimming emerald gaze meeting hers in genuine surprise and she smiled gently in response, only to receive a scowl back as James looked sharply away.  

"Please Jess, I-I can't tell you, I- Can't, not now, I'm sorry…" he whispered brokenly, nuzzling his face into his arms.  

"James, of course you can tell me!  Come on, come down and we'll go inside where its warm.  We can talk there and-" she began kindly only to be interrupted.  

"No!  Damn it Jessie please just-" James snapped harshly, softening when he saw her shocked and bewildered expression, "please just leave me alone…"  

"This isn't a time for you to be alone!  You're upset, and I want to help you!  Come on, at least come inside!" Jessie called as cheerfully as she could, the tears collecting and stinging at the corners of her eyes.  

"Go away…  You're absolutely the last person on earth I want to talk to right now, I just need to be alone I swear!  Please Jessica… You're only making this harder," came the muted retort, and Jessie was unable to feel the single streak of a tear down her cheek.  

"James, don't say that," she whispered, the use of her full name denoting the gravity of his affliction to her, "I-I don't understand.  Why can't you…?  I thought we loved each other, why can't you talk to me?!"

James looked up once again, turning his pale and tear stained face down to her, scowling furiously as the hot droplets once again seared down the sides of his face, only fueling the anger he could not place.  

"Because I…!" he began angrily, stopping with a small gasp as he realized who he was unleashing his venom upon, "Damn you!  Just leave!  Go!  Leave me alone!"  His fury broke into a fit of sobs, and Jessie let her own tears fall freely, shaking her head in disbelief as she clenched her fists by her sides and her teeth in frustration and betrayal, turning languidly over her shoulder to go, silently prayed he would call her back to his side.  She departed only when he too, turned away to the moon, knowing that he had been sincere in his words and he would not come to her, feet moving of their own accord as she sprinted with all her strength back to the home, slamming the door behind her.

James winced as he heard it reverberate in the darkness, the sound resonating throughout his body and reawakening the dull throbbing pain that had been to some extent alleviated only by sitting up in his tree.  The light he so fervently willed to stay lit he already felt dimming, the tearful words of Samuel Oak still ringing in his ears as he embraced him, "_God, __I'm so sorry James, I am so sorry."  _

"That's alright Sam," he whispered back as if he could hear, "It's not your fault.  It's not anyone's…"  

It was as if his life, his love, his being, were all in vain, the triumph he had felt so poignantly slain and crushed beneath the fiery grip of twilight from beyond the gates of death which had opened once again in want of his soul.  Futility descended upon him, and James cried once more for a soul lost to the black rivers that carried all hope away on their white tipped rapids, a frozen ebon cloak seizing his heart.  The billowing shroud bound it in black shards of ice that pierced James' soul and body, the flurry never mitigating, always magnifying the pain that had come in small waves, only to be replaced slowly by a torrent that would in time become eternal.  

"Why?  Why can't this pain and torment end?  Why do I have to suffer like this?  I love her so much, and I'll do nothing but hurt her, why did we have to fall in love?  Damn it all!  Why?!" James cried bitterly, slamming a fist down on the rough bark of his branch, "It was all for nothing!  The whole thing, just for it to end like this?  All of the torture and suffering I endured were for nothing!"

Ignoring the small trail of blood down his wrist where the bark had gouged into the soft flesh of his fist, James buried his face in his hands, shutting his dark eyes mournfully, wishing to simply slip into the shadows and never return.  The faintest traces of his song floated daintily through the air, and even though he concentrated intensely to hear it, hoping it would bring him comfort, only the shattered remnants of the gorgeous symphony it had been the previous night remained.  

"Oh Jessie…  I'm sorry, I tried…  I really did," he whispered to her through his tears, "But I can't win this time… This is my last fight, and I will lose.  I'm so sorry Jess, please know I'll always love you, even if I can't… Even if I can't be with you.  I will keep my promise, and I will always be by your side."

James looked valiantly to the moon, his unwavering gaze piercing his own fate of darkness with a virulence matched only by the miasma itself, tears still falling into the black void beneath him.  Remembering vows he had made to himself, and remembering words he had said to himself once, he pressed two fingers to his forehead for what he was determined to make his final teleport, mouthing them again so that not even the winds could hear, "_my last breaths of life shall have her name upon them."_

James cried out softly in pain as he appeared with a blue flash and a small wail of energy outside the closed and dark rimmed door to the bedroom, immediately sinking to his knees and wrapping his arms about his abdomen in agony.  The whispers he had managed to suppress for nearly the entire duration of his transformation sounded briefly in the deepest recesses of his mind as his black vision swirled and pitched violently with color, his peripheral vision fading to a nauseating white as he furiously fought for consciousness.  The intense pain lasted only a merciful few moments, much to James' relief, and as soon as he could see again, stood, leaning gently against the cool wood of the doorframe and wiping the small beads of perspiration from his pale forehead.  Drawing in a deep breath, and finally mustering the courage to speak and stay the tears of sorrow he still felt surging forth from deep within his psyche, James wrapped his hand slowly about the silver knob and twisted, edging his lithe form into the room as silently as possible.

Jessie lay in bed, coiled protectively about herself with a glimmering silver jewel of a tear still fresh upon her cheek, and it took all of James' strength to hold back his own as he sat gently beside her upon the bed bowing reverently over her and closing his eyes against her twisted features.  

"I love you Jessie, that's why it's so hard," he whispered, caressing her cheek with his hand, "I love you so much.  I don't ever want to hurt you."  

He bent down to kiss her forehead gently, but allowed a tear to fall as she suddenly stirred to life, pressing her lips fully against his and wrapping her arms around his neck to hold him close.  James opened his eyes, startled, but once he realized all the red-haired woman had heard, kissed her back as passionately as he could bear, beginning to cry once more as he embraced her.  They pulled away slightly, Jessie sitting up with her arms still about his neck, smiling at him and brushing his tangled blue tresses away from his face, cupping his chin in her palm as he fought the urge to run.  

"There's no need to be scared James," she whispered gently, placing a kind hand on his shoulder as he turned away.  

"No, but that still doesn't excuse the things I said to you, Jess I-" he was silenced by a gentle finger across his lips as Jessie quitted the bed and knelt before him.  

"James, I don't care, I've already forgotten.  I love you, that's why it's so hard," she assured him, taking his hands in hers and rubbing the backs of them gently.

James trembled as he could almost see the scars flash with a black light as Jessie's loving fingertips grazed across them, forced to shut his wide eyes as he stood suddenly, brushing swiftly past his beloved and to the window.  

"Jessie, I…" he trailed off, staring the silver disk steadily rising into the black velvet sky, swallowing hard through his constricted throat, "I didn't want to tell you.  I tried to avoid it for so long, so long!  But I can't Jess, I can't do it, I'm so sorry!" 

 He rested his forehead against the icy windowpane and buried his face in a single hand to cry once more, knowing deep in his soul that if he looked at Jessie, if he saw her eyes, that he would steal their light away, pressing his palm against his closed eyes so hard, they shone and danced with a mocking brilliance.  

"Tried to avoid what?  Is… Is this about what happened today?" Jessie queried timidly, afraid to move from her spot on the floor.  James inhaled deeply, and looked down to the soul crouched pensively before him, her worried sapphire gaze fixed only upon him with eyes that would only see the truth.  He drew in a deep breath and wrapped his arms about his waist as if to comfort himself, closing his eyes to rid them of the remnants of the tears as his body commanded the last of his strength to stand and sent him to the floor upon his knees.  

"The Twilight Project is a death sentence Jess…  It killed Callie, it killed her friend, a Vaporeon, it killed Butch, and I was an idiot to think I could escape it… I was so stupid," he moaned plaintively, hanging his head in sorrow.

Jessie felt her breath catch in her throat, pressing one hand hard against her thundering chest and reaching the other slightly out to touch the black silhouette huddled against itself beneath the window.  

"You can't mean…  James, no, that can't be true.  Tell me that's not true!" she sibilated in a wavering voice, "What happened?"  

It seemed an eternity before James could speak, his throat so tight it became difficult to breathe as he clenched his teeth in consternation and stared hard and blankly at the pools blackness gathering before him.  

"S-Something's… Something's wrong, Jessie…" he began, wincing at his own words, and still unable to look into her eyes, "Sam's been watching me ever since we came here, and… My body just can't handle it anymore, Jess… Jessica I think-"  

"James, don't, stop right now, I don't want to hear it," Jessie interjected softly, stopping only to shake her head in incredulity, "I don't want to hear it!"

Time stood still, holding its breath for one stolen moment of tacit communication between two pillars of light in the darkness, once one brilliant whole, they stood gleaming dimmer and dimmer apart, cleaved in two by the sword of darkness that had slain the sun.  It was an eternity before Jessie could speak again, neither one of them looking to the other still, as she opened her mouth to attempt to force her words from a throat and mind that pleaded she simply flee before the blackness consumed her soul along with her beloved's.  

"How… How long?" she managed in a whisper that would have been inaudible to anyone but James.  

"He doesn't know.  A week, a month, a year, forever, but it's already taken its toll.  I could fight forever with you by my side Jessie but I just can't…" he trailed off painfully, his weary body sinking lower into the void.  

"How long James?!" a flash of light from Jessie's sharp voice awakened him.  

"A month, at most, but I don't know if I can hold on that long…" he answered solemnly, placing one hand to his forehead ruefully.  

"But, you've been so strong, you went through so much, why would this come back?  Why now?  Almost two years after the fact!  You told me Butch didn't even make it through the whole procedure, you couldn't have been that different, could you?  This has to be wrong!" Jessie protested weakly, finally casting her tearful gaze down to the still form of James, bathed in a silver curtain of moonlight beneath the window.  

He turned his head slowly, his blackened eyes and pale skin already looking dead as he softened his blank emerald eyes with a sad smile to the woman he had fallen in love with before the darkness had taken root, and remembering the unrefined light he had never been able to feel whole again.  

"No, I can feel it Jessie, deep inside me… I hid it from you, I'm sorry.  I've been able to feel it for a long time, there's a… A blackness that's always there, in the back of my mind since the experiment.  Being with you again made me forget it, I thought I had won, and it was gone forever but… It's like it has a life of its own, and it's always wanted me," he slowly explained sorrowfully, drawing on every word.  

"But I still don't understand how-" Jessie began, fighting back her tears until James cut her off.  

"I accepted it, Jess, I let it take me… If I hadn't… If I'd fought like Butch did, I'd already be dead…  I'd already be dead…" he whispered through fresh sobs.

James let the darkness overtake him, knowing he had forsaken his love for his own benefit, and had only come back to smite her once more, looking up only when he felt her arms encircle his waist, and her cheek against his as she whispered in his ear.  

"And why did you want to live, James?" she said softly, her lips grazing his cheek as she did so.  He felt Jessie's fingers run slowly through his tangled hair as he wrapped his arms around her gently, holding her as tightly to his body as he dared, and speaking when he felt a soft kiss upon his neck. 

"For you, I wanted to live for you, for us," he whispered in response, hands trailing up her back.  

"You forgot, didn't you?" she answered, closing her eyes as she felt James' tender touch, her fingertips gently brushing over his chest.  

"I forgot how much you mean to me, I had to…but now that I remember, now that I can hold you in my arms again, now that I can feel the warmth of your body…  Now I want to hold you forever, I never want to let you go, Jessie," he said tearfully, closing his eyes as their lips met in a single, passionate kiss.

Jessie let her own tears fall, James allowing her to gently remove his black sweater as they stood, their lips meeting once more and the pallid moonlight enclosing them as they stole a moment of radiance.  

"Then don't," Jessie said at last, looking deeply into James' emerald irises, "Never let me go, and I swear I'll hold on to you."  

James could barely feel the scalding tears slide down his cheeks as he lost himself in a pool of blue that enveloped his senses, filled his mind with a familiar benevolence, and caressed his body with warmth as he held his love close to his bare chest.  

"Oh Jessie…Jessie, I love you," he breathed, and finally felt his heart surge.  It beat with Jessie's as one, and James heard the wish made eons before as he listened to the harmony, and made his own, willing hers to go on for another eon after his light had long since gone out.  

"And I love you, James… But, please," she answered ardently, stepping away from him, her back to the window and keeping his hands in hers, "Please let us spend one night together."  

She released his palms, pressing one finger to his lips before he could answer, and slowly untied the strip of fabric holding the robe she had been wearing.  Her adoring gaze never left his as she eased the sky blue stain garment off of her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor and leaving her only clothing the halo of a shimmering cerulean from the stars and moon.  

"I want to be that close to you, to share myself with you, become a part of you, make you part of me, forever," she added softly, looking reassuringly into James' eyes as they filled with tears once again.

He looked to his savior, an angel framed in the sovereign starlight of the heavens, bathed and clothed in only the silver strands of cloth from the moon, his guiding light in a sea of darkness and suddenly felt a small glimmer.  It was a hope, a flash of red hair and smile of a golden cloaked goddess of victory, then the clear and shining image of himself, the quiescent remembrance of the glimpse of his own soul.  

"Beautiful…  You are so incredibly gorgeous Jessica," he breathed in admiration gently, closing his eyes in pleasure as she leaned forward into his embrace.  Reminded of why he had fought so hard to save himself, James held Jessie as she removed the last of his own clothing, reveling in the feeling of her naked body against his and her gentle kisses along his chest and neck.  

"And as are you, James," she whispered, her arms encircling his neck as she leaned back into bed with him, their mutual gaze never wavering, "James, my love, you are beautiful…"

The world melted to light, faded to nothing but a sapphire and emerald reverie as two halves of one soul ordained themselves as complete alone, and complete together, immortal as one, as individuals indestructible.  James echoed Jessie's soft moan of pleasure as their bodies slowly became one, and she coiled her arms gently around his body, looking deeply into his eyes and forsaking time in a kiss.  She welcomed his tender touch, the loving caress of his palms, the grazing of his fingertips over her body in accompaniment with the slow, tender thrusts of his hips as she finally felt enveloped in the radiance their beings united.  James whispered her name passionately into her ear, still feeling her warm breath on his neck, her lips flying gracefully over his body and upon his own, sweat of exertion and tears of joy dripping down his face as their lovemaking neared a zenith.

Like fire, her hair slipped through his ardent fingers, and like the ice of his melted by the inferno of her fiery soul, it cascaded through hers, one moment frozen in eternity as their eyes met.  A spark of light burst with the holy fusion of two powers of old, fire and ice, inseparably intertwined as a single entity, and the darkness receded to a love that had rescued the soul it sought from its vile clutches long before.  It slunk back silently for the lone moment of beauty within its squalid seas, two hearts, two bodies, and two souls joined pacifying the ravenous black waters upon the event horizon of dawn.  To be together forever, they pledged in their hearts with their act of love and devotion, holding each other securely and eternally as their world exploded with a final rush of pleasure before falling back to reality from their place among the stars.

They held each other still, Jessie listening intently to James' labored breathing as it slowed, and matched her own with it, kissing his sweat dampened forehead lovingly and brushing his wet locks away from his face.  He opened his weary eyes only slightly to cast a loving smile to his beloved, pleasant fatigue washing gently over him and beckoning him to sleep as her touch continued lightly over his face, her lips gently brushing over his bare chest.  He closed his eyes gratefully as she cradled his head beneath her chin, and the rhythmic beating of her heart sounded a knoll in the darkness, calling forth a point of light in the distance he leapt to give chase after as he slipped into his dream.  The black fates had allowed one moment of his golden light to live within their shadow, but James knew that they would soon reign, his dawn was long dead and that the darkness had at last come to claim the long sought prize of his soul.

To be continued… 


	3. The Light in the East

Author's Note: Ahhh, let's all sing the AP is hell song!  Anyways, I'm really really sorry this is like a month late!  But hey, I've had the last like April May insanity at school for AP testing, but hey!  So here ya go!  Part 3, a nice fat long chapter for yas!  Enjoy!  ^_^

Dawn Chaser

Chapter 3: The Light in the East

"_Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart." ~ Marcus Aurelius_

Golden sunlight filtered gently through the half drawn curtains, falling over James' closed eyes in a single beam, dancing upon his glimmering but tousled locks, warming his body and dulling the pain that dwelled there as he awoke.  He opened his dark framed eyes slowly, wincing at the slight sting of moving as he huddled closer to the woman next to him in bed, still held protectively in her arms, but smiled, and kissed the top of her head gently as he cradled it beneath his chin as she had done for him.  

"Thank you, Jessie," he whispered, as if she could hear, "Thank you always for loving me.  I'll never forget it."  

He could still feel her, still hear her avid voice, the exhilaration of her touch and the warmth inside of her body still lingered in James' mind as he embraced his love, feeling his eyes well with tears that would never fall.

Jessie stirred at his touch, drawing in a deep breath as her senses gradually returned, and nuzzling into James chest before she realized exactly where she was, she opened her eyes quickly in almost disbelief, looking up with a loving smile as she caressed his cheek to gain his attention.  

"So it wasn't a dream," she breathed reverently, touching the tip of her nose to James' chin, "Last night really…  Oh James."  

"It was incredible, you were incredible Jess," James answered, kissing her forehead lightly.  She grinned euphorically, still reveling in the excitement of feeling the warmth of him beside her, and the memory of the pleasure in his touch, and the feeling of his body inside of her own.  

"And you, James, my love," she whispered between kisses along his chest, meandering to his neck and finally to his lips, "were amazing."

James laughed lightly at Jessie's devious smirk, wrapping his arms about her waist securely and kissing her once more as he ran a hand through her crimson tresses, smiling when she closed her eyes in response and nestled closer to him, her head against his chest.  

"James, last night, I felt so…  I, can't really describe it, but I know you felt it too," she began quietly, and James closed his eyes, nodding in agreement, "The thought that we can never be closer than that, that we were one for a single beautiful moment, what we were together, and that…  That I'm going to lose you, it's just…  It's almost too much to bear.  James, I don't know if I can live without you."  

He opened his eyes as Jessie buried her face into his shoulder, body trembling with sorrow and sobs he knew she would not show, feeling his own eyes sting as he embraced her to answer.  

"Of course you can Jessie, you're so strong, and brave, I know you can beat anything this world can throw at you," James answered amiably, attempting to hide his inevitable tears, "That's what makes you my Jess.  I'll always be with you, even if you can't see me, feel me, hear my voice, I'll always be by your side, watching over you."

Jessie felt James' arms around her tighten, closing his eyes against the tears that seared his cheeks as his beloved pulled back and stroked them in comfort, kissing the crystalline drops away.  

"Such a cliché…," she whispered with a smile, and reached behind her neck to unclasp the golden locket she still wore and never removed, "Here, I want you to have this back."  James gasped as she tenderly fastened the short and delicate chain around his neck, kissing it once more before she did so and brushing his hair away from his face with a loving caress.  

"Oh Jessie, I can't take this back," he breathed reaching back to take it off, but was stopped instantaneously by Jessie expectantly taking his hands into her own.  

"It's alright, I _want you to have it back.  It reminds both of us of our love, of our strength, it helped you find it to tell me how you really felt about me, it helped me find the strength to go on, and now you need it again," she murmured fervently, looking into his tearful eyes, "Are you sure there's nothing we can do?  What about your recover?"  James sighed and nodded, letting himself cry at last, falling gratefully into Jessie's arms as she planted a delicate kiss upon his forehead, reaching a hand to stroke the back of his head in comfort, and noting only then how sick he was beginning to look.  _

"I'm sure, I don't even need Sam to tell me to know that I'm dying, and recover won't work, it's these powers that are killing me, if I used that it would only make it worse," he whispered through his tears.  

"Shall we stay in bed a little longer?" Jessie asked quietly after a silence, to which James nodded, "Do you want me to hold you a while?"  

He nodded again, closing his eyes and pressing close into the warmth of Jessie's naked body, smiling slightly in spite of the tears still flowing freely as he recalled exactly how he had fallen asleep the night before, and finally allowing his oddly fatigued and sore body to drift back into the lapping waters of darkness he felt only in dreams.

Jessie was true, keeping James' slumbering form close to her own, but allowing her thoughts only long after he had fallen asleep, and she had spent time stroking his pale cheeks with the back of her hand, and realizing how ill a shadow his dark rimmed eyes gave his appearance.  

"He-He really is sick…" she whispered brokenly to herself, pausing as her thoughts finally became clear, "He's… Dying..."  

Jessie felt something shatter that moment, the aura of light that she had been so sure would shield herself from the blades of the night crumbling with a final blow and falling away, leaving her bare and exposed.  Closing her own eyes to slip into the eddying void, she gently brushed the tears from James' pallid face and kissed his lips once more, holding him protectively, and with a final, delicate whisper to deaf ears of, "I love you," Jessie finally allowed her soul to be taken as well.

@---

_"James?  James is that you?  Are you alright?"_

An arrow of brilliant gold and silver light pierced through his eyelids to the backs of his eyes, and a jovial voice sounded through the air over the sound of cascading blades of grass and fluttering ripples of leaves and trees in the winds as he felt the sleek prick of a flower petal lighting upon his cheek.

_"Heh, it is you!  Hey come on, you don't have to lie there like you're dead do you?  I promise I won't bite!"_

He opened his eyes only slightly, finding the light no longer burned after a moment, but illuminated the crest of the grassy knoll where he lay in a brilliant flaxen glow, shading his world in its hues as he gently lifted his aching body from the ground to answer.  

"I-I'm fine…  Who are you?" he muttered groggily, still unable to see anything as another dainty pink blossom landed on the bridge of his nose.  

"Over here moron," came the irritated response and the blue-haired man looked up slowly to the base of a fully bloomed Sakura tree, where a young boy with unruly black tresses with a dozing Pikachu at his side reclined with his back against the trunk with the languid yellow sun dancing apathetically in his hazel irises.

James was instantly on his feet with a gasp, taking a cautious and terrified step backward as Ash Ketchum laughed brightly and patted the ground next to him, beckoning his old adversary to sit beside his soul.  

"A-Ash?  It can't be, you're… You're," he began, barely able to speak.  

"Dead?  Yeah I know, what difference does it make?  I simply wanted to visit an old friend!" he replied vivaciously with a pedantic smirk only until James twisted his hands in his long hair and sank to his knees.  

"No…" he moaned, looking wretchedly up to the blond sky, to scream, "NO!"  Ash, finally comprehending why James seemed so distraught and petrified on seeing him, stood and walked slowly over to the sobbing older man, laying a hand gently on his back to gain his attention.  

"Idiot, you're not dead!  I _said I was visiting, but you didn't listen did you?" he reprimanded affably, relishing in the hot crimson blush that rose in James' cheeks as he helped him stand.  _

"I'm… Oh, sorry, I just…" James trailed off quietly, looking away as Ash guided him to the tree, hand never leaving his shoulder and, seated him as he accepted the woken Pikachu into his lap.  

"I know, it's okay, I'm glad you'll be here soon though," Ash answered as he glanced sideways to see James smile lovingly at the Pokemon, "She can't talk anymore."

James sighed and patted the electric rodent affectionately atop her head as she settled into his warmth to continue her nap, closing his eyes as he leaned back into the warm roughness of the bark.  

"I figured as much, it was unnatural, it was sick, I almost wished I had never heard her speak a word…" he answered solemnly.  

"What he did to you was horrible too, but trust me, you'll be at peace, you'll be happy," Ash promised softly, looking up to the billowing wisps of clouds streaking across the sky.  

"No I won't, not without her… Not with knowing how much I hurt her…" James muttered under his breath, almost to hide his voice.  

"You hurt Deirdre, and she's happy again," was Ash's only response, to which his companion drew a sharp breath.  

"Deirdre… Is-is she okay now?  I always liked to think she was finally at peace," he inquired anxiously, smiling when Ash did.  

"Don't worry, she's fine, and she forgives you," he answered, picking a long thin stalk from the grass and pinching the hollow tube between his teeth. 

James' smile broadened as he finally reclined back once more, huffing air amusedly into the dusty, grass scented ambiance of gold, closing his eyes and allowing the warmth to soothe his pains.  

"I know you're real sick, but you feel better already don't you?" Ash piped enthusiastically, and James nodded from somewhere within his quiet stupor, "you can stay now if you want!  I know I'd love it, she would too!"  

"No," James answered immediately, shaking his head, smiling deviously at Ash's disappointed expression, "Sorry, but I want to hold on as long as I can, I want to be able to say goodbye to her.  It's strange but I… I almost want to endure all the pain I can, I want her to be holding my hand, whispering in my ear that she loves me when I come here, I want the last words out of my mouth to be 'I love you, Jessie' and I want to know that I did everything I could to stay with her, I don't want to give up now, she taught me otherwise."

Ash looked on in quiet veneration, his crooked smile oddly amiable as he gently leaned over, easing himself onto his stomach in the thin grass and cupping his chin in his palms to look up at the older man.  

"But that's what's killing you," he whispered in a deathly hiss.  

"What?" was James' only incredulous answer as Pikachu's ears pricked slightly at her master's tone and words.  

"You lived this long because you accepted your fate, you said it yourself!  Now you're rebelling against it, and the blackness doesn't tolerate such things," the boy replied darkly.  

"That- That can't be true, it can't!  I never fought against the transformation, I never have!  I've completely accepted it as a part of me!  It has flaws, that's why I'm dying!" James retaliated angrily as Ash rolled over on his back, looking through fire rimmed Hazel irises that only spoke of virulence.  

"That's not all the Twilight Project is…  It is that blackness, not merely to make creatures, that is hidden in its purpose.  It is meant to ensnare the mind, devour the soul, make you a slave at its mercy, and the reason Butch died, _James, is he remembered how much Cassidy meant to him.  He accepted the Pokemon abilities, just as you have, that part was simple, he wanted to live so badly… For her, for himself, he wanted to use his abilities to escape to her afterward, he didn't let the darkness claim him even for one second and you did," he explained narrowing his eyes bitterly._

The distant sound of laughter resounded in James' ears as he stood quickly, the startled Pikachu leaping from his legs and tearing into the soft flesh of his thighs shallowly.  

"No… No, that…  I didn't mean…" he stammered taking a trembling step backward.  

"You forgot James!  It's been explained so plainly for you many times, you should know this by now!  Your heart has stolen back light, but that is not what it needs to survive anymore," he heard Ash's voice again, the second time sounding mournful.  

"That's not true!  That can't be true!  Why would I die once I finally found happiness again?  That doesn't make any sense!" James screamed virulently in response, closing his eyes as the darkness enclosed his body and dropped it into a void, the last thing ringing sharply in his mind before the earsplitting sounds and scathing shards of the shattering of glass, the little boy's solemn voice one last time.  

"_Ask Giovanni when you get here…"_

James' eyes snapped open instantly as he awoke with a start, breath coming short in his chest and beads of sweat rolling down his forehead as he was unable to see anything but a blank shimmering whiteness.  He squeezed his eyes shut in a mild panic, then opened them after a time, calming as his central vision returned and placing a hand to his forehead ruefully, sighing as he gently enclosed the pendant around his neck in his other palm.  

"Ash…" he whispered softly, "What are you trying to tell me?"  

"James?" the soft gentle voice came from behind him, so he turned over and looked up into Jessie's concerned azure irises as she brushed his hair away from his eyes.  He smiled and allowed his body to uncoil, closing his eyes and sighing gratefully at her tender touch as he reached up to take her hand in his.  

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly, the concern and guilt obvious in her voice, "I'm so sorry, I had a few things to do, but you were still asleep and I didn't want you to wake up and be alone, so I-"  

"It's alright Jess, I'm okay," James interrupted quietly, his own voice sounding suddenly odd in the late afternoon quiescence and ruddy sunlight.  Jessie smiled, relieved as she leaned back into her chair at the bedside with her hand still entwined with James', squeezing it once in reassurance.  

"I'm glad you told Meowth, I didn't want to," he remarked dimly, closing his eyes again.  

"How did you…?  Oh, never mind, I should have known you'd know," Jessie responded with a chuckle, "I haven't seen him in a good long while, he couldn't stop crying…"

James scowled at himself and released Jessie's palm, pressing both hands to his forehead repentantly as his throat constricted, closing his eyes hard until bursts of colored lights danced and wavered before them.  

"So I've hurt him now…  Jess, I'm so sorry, I never meant for this to happen, I never wanted to hurt either of you again," he whispered so softly Jessie could scarcely hear his raspy voice.  

"What?  Oh James, of course you haven't hurt me, why on earth would you even think of something like that?  Meowth isn't hurt either!  We just…  James the mere thought of going back to what it was like without you scares the hell out of both of us!  We don't want to lose you…" Jessie responded forcefully, taking James' icy hand once again as he finally turned his dull emerald eyes upward.  

"Death can only separate us for a little while, and though it is inevitable, and mine is close, I want you promise me Jessica, promise me you'll live yours out to the fullest," he whispered so painfully quiet Jessie had rested her head upon his pillow beside him to hear.  

"No, I can't promise that…  I could spit out some crap about how you complete me, and how I can't live without you and will shrivel up and die alone, but that's not really how I feel!  There- there aren't words to describe it…  I feel like I'm losing… The sun," Jessie replied in an ethereally firm and gentle voice.  

"The sun will always rise," James answered simply, "and it will always set."

Jessie was silent for a moment before gently easing herself back upon the soft mattress and wrapping a loving arm over James' still shoulders, pressing her lips to his gently as she cupped her palm about the fist clenched tightly about the locket.  

"Let's go to our tree Jessie, and we'll watch the sunset," murmured James fervently as his eyes met hers.  

"Alright James, let's go," she answered with a smile, and as she stood quickly to retrieve something for James to clothe himself with, he alone saw as her back was turned to the closet, Jessie wipe the tears from her eyes that had never fallen, and never would.

The late summer sun died in a bed of silk, its blood staining the perfect shimmering whites and blues that had once blanketed the celestial being it was sworn to protect, and the crimson reaching in spindly, crooked fingers for the souls to come to night.  Jessie and James sat bathed in the gold shadow and pink curtain of the tree to witness the event, held tightly in each other's arms each night, renewing for a time, the fire in James' eyes that grew dimmer by the day.  He spent an increasing period of time each day in bed, the only reason being he had not the strength to get up, while Jessie decided to resume the strict exercise regime she had kept for long years prior in team Rocket, but quickly ceased as she witnessed her body get stronger as his grew weaker.  They continued their final ritual of sitting beneath the tree that shadowed their joy protectively, and never seeing the hail of crystal lights from the sky, nor hearing the beautiful melody of their unity until one evening where upon searching for her beloved to watch the event, he was nowhere to be found.   

She found him beneath the boughs alone that evening on the cusp of fall after searching the house one last time to retrieve him to go together, his blackened eyes staring wistfully down at the rose encrusted locket he held loosely in shaking palms as she stopped to look upon his withered stature.  His long blue hair hung limp and tangled above his shoulders, his entire trembling body looking unusually thin and frail as the deep orange light of the dying sun deepened the grooves in his emaciated stature, breathing in as deeply as he could muster with the pendant pressed close to his heart.  

"James…" Jessie breathed to herself mournfully, and he looked up.

James had sensed her presence, and smiled wearily as he leaned against the trunk of the tree, closing his eyes and turning back to the orange waters of the ocean beneath the red sky.  

"I know why it was called the Twilight Project now Jess," he said in an even and low tone, his back still turned as the wind carried his voice to her.  Jessie said nothing, simply smiled back and crossed her arms over her chest, closing her eyes as well and looking over her shoulder into the sweet smelling breeze.  

"It is that darkness," James continued as if she had responded, "It's like the sun, even though it rises, it always has to set…  Happiness, life, love, you, it's light, it's the sun, it rises and stays only a short beautiful time, and of course then the sun sets, and… And it's dark for a while…  But the light always comes back, and what I don't understand is, why darkness has to carry death with it…"

Jessie finally turned her gaze to the figure bathed in blood light before her, watching the wind toss his azure tresses gently against themselves as he crossed his arms tightly over his stomach.  

"But you'll… You'll be free after, won't you?  You won't be in pain anymore, right?  So… The sun will rise, and you can be happy, what's there not to understand?" she responded timidly.  

"You're only right about one thing, I hurt so bad now it's become almost unbearable, and that will end, but Jess… Anywhere without you, my love, my best friend, and anywhere without Meowth, and Sam, and Misty and Brock, and Delia, my friends, is not freedom or happiness in any way," James answered valiantly, his voice wavering with tears as he turned swiftly back around to face Jessie, "I don't want to die, Jessie, I-I want so badly to stay here and live with you and everyone else…But I just can't…I can't hold on…Anymore…"

Jessie looked through James' eyes as they slowly closed, the black silhouetted figure against the horizon gradually collapsing to the ground, and she reached out to him as she ran, no sound resonating within her ears as she fell to her knees at his side, catching his shivering body in her arms.  

"James!  James, no…" she pleaded, cradling him close against her body and in sweeping his hair away from his flushed and pale face, felt the burning heat, "You've got a bad fever… What on earth were you doing out here?"  

"I… I just wanted to…" he began, but stopped with a groan as he felt blood rise in his throat, and pain sear through his entire body and soul, "I wanted to see it one last time…"  

"Oh James…" Jessie moaned tearfully, burying her face in his shoulder as she finally allowed her sobs free, "I wish we… I wish we could stay together, I wish I could come with you…"  

"Oh please don't say that, and don't cry.  I hate it when you cry Jess, please don't… Don't cry," James whispered, his own voice breaking as he ran a hand through her hair gently.

Jessie closed her eyes and did not answer, staring defiantly instead into the blackness that welcomed her, hot tears sliding down her cheeks as she kissed James' lips passionately, cupping his chin in her palm and stroking his wet cheek with a thumb.  

"I know, it makes you cry too," she said at last, then furiously whispering almost inaudibly to herself, "But…I love you too much to just accept this…  I hate that you're slipping away from me and there's nothing I can do!"  

"Then…  Then there's no use in crying… Is there?" James responded painfully, smiling up at her fondly as she finally opened her eyes again.

The two pairs of eyes met only for a moment, before James' clouded with pain as they slid shut, a meek cry escaping his lips as a small trail of blood leaked from the corner of them, then nothing as Jessie felt his body slacken in her arms.  Her breath caught acridly in her chest as she clutched James closer to her own form, brushing a hand over his forehead where perspiration was beginning to bead delicately and down to his lips desperately, where still finding breath, exhaled in relief, and placed a hand to her heart.  Jessie watched the sun set alone that night, a blazing beacon shrouded in choking ebon clouds, and still holding James close, her body unstained with tears.

@---

It was unfeasible for a tearful Samuel Oak to comprehend that the same bedraggled, pale and ashen-faced figure lying weak and dying, his breathing shallow and uneven, in bed before him had been the same unchained unhindered youth who had so vivaciously spoken of how grateful he was to have life and love once again.  Perched lovingly at his bedside, he dabbed the fresh droplets away from his forehead and sighed, dropping the wrist he had been holding gently beside and mourning the erratic pulse he had felt there.  

"I'm so sorry Jessie, there's just nothing more anyone can do…" he sibilated mournfully to the young woman hovering anxiously overhead, furious at himself for being so powerless, "I suppose what we should do now is try and make him as comfortable as possible, and just wait.  But, I- I don't think he'll have to hurt much longer."  

Samuel winced at James' muted cry of pain, and wiped the tears from his eyes, looking away as Jessie wordlessly occupied the seat next to him and gently took James' hand, her back facing the older man as she spoke.  

"So what can I do as I sit here and wait for him to die?" she hissed bitterly, the anger not hidden in her low tones.  

"Just be here for him Jessie, and try to keep his fever down," answered Samuel, placing a ginger hand on his friend's shoulder, gaining her attention as she looked pensively back, "And here, this should help with the pain.  Just brew it with some hot water."  

Jessie begrudgingly accepted the small feathery package bulging with coarse crushed leaves and herbs, still clinging tightly to James' inert hand and cradling it in her other palm for only a moment before placing it neatly beside the basin filled with icy water, a chill striking her as fingers just brushed its frigid surface.  A soft moan from James brought her senses back willfully, and as she responded with soothingly pressing the cold cloth onto his burning forehead, a small smile crept across her lips when she felt his grip on her hand tighten.  

"Um, will…Will you stay, Sam?" queried Jessie at length, her attention still diverted to the stricken figure in bed.  

"Yes, of course, I thought you'd both need me here so I've already made plans to stay a week or so.  I'm having Gary bring some stuff down later, and I'm sure he'd like to see James.  I called Misty and Brock too," Samuel responded softly, leaning back into his chair beside the younger woman, and wrapping an arm around her shoulders with a gentle smile.  

"I'm sure they'd all like to see him, and I'm sure James would like it.  I'm sure he'd want to…" she began spiritedly, but trailed off as she felt tears threaten her composure, finishing only to herself, "_I'm sure he'd want to say goodbye…"  _

"Well, it's getting late, and you haven't eaten all day have you?  How about I make us both some dinner?" Samuel asked amiably, clapping Jessie's shoulder as she turned to him.  

"Uh, no thanks, I didn't eat, I haven't left James since I got up this morning, but I- I'm not really hungry," she answered wearily, turning back.  

"Oh Jess, I know how hard this is, I know the pain of losing someone you love, but you have to be strong, you have to go on, James wouldn't want his death killing you too," Samuel's eyes met hers as he stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, mirroring her small poignant smile.  

"Okay, I'll eat, but I'm not leaving him," she promised firmly with a definitive finger in the air, to which Samuel laughed gently as he stood.  

"Nah, he needs you here, I'll be back in a bit, okay?" he asked, standing and brushing the last of the tears welled in his eyes.  

"Okay," came Jessie's muted answer, and she nodded dumbly as her friend quietly quitted the room. 

The ensuing silence broken only periodically by a sharp gasp in James' otherwise labored and anguished breathing as it abated and calmed bore down upon Jessie thickly, and she leaned forward onto the bed with an elbow as she ran a hand through his hair affectionately with a smile.  

"You always had such beautiful hair, I'm glad you keep it long," she whispered, as if only to break the silence.  

"Thanks, I do try," James' quiet retort startled her momentarily, but she laughed gently as his eyes fluttered open experimentally.  

"Well you're welcome, how long have you been awake?" Jessie asked kindly, stroking his cheek as he looked up to her.  

"Just a little while, long enough to tell you that you didn't have to watch over me all day, but thank you," he answered reverently, reaching up to cup her chin in his palm and looking directly into her eyes as his tone became somber, "Please, I want nothing more than for you to live, even after I'm gone.  I know I killed you once, but I love you, Jessica, and I don't want to do that again…"

Jessie smiled wryly, closing her eyes as she took James' hand into both of hers from her face, and kissing the back of it gently, she leaned close enough to whisper and that her lips grazed lightly over his as she spoke.  

"You know what?  Now I promise, James, now I promise," she murmured as she lowered her entire body atop the satiny and sky blue covered bed alongside her beloved as she took his shivering form close in her arms, "I'll love you forever."  

"I know Jess," he whispered in reply, closing his eyes, "I know."  

The pain writhing within his being receded as Jessie's lips met his softly, her hand sweeping daintily across his flushed and pale cheeks, through his damp hair once more, deepening the passion and dulling the shards of ice tearing through his body with a white and comforting shroud after she broke away.  His emerald eyes shone with happiness and sorrow at once as she gazed adoringly into them, and her beam only widened at his smirk and tiny breathy chuckle as he shifted to his back.  

"Sam's gonna be in here in a minute, don't want him to catch us like this do we?" he reprehended affably, and no sooner had he spoken than a jovial Professor Oak had swept in brandishing a tray.  Jessie leapt back to her perch, her face a dark shade of pink as James clapped a hand over his mouth to contain his laughter, which brought another smile to the red-haired woman's lips.

The night ended with Samuel curled contentedly with Meowth on the sofa in the living room, while James had answered the sensitive question that had been upon Jessie's tongue since the sun had set, practically demanding that she stay with him.  He had blushed when he admitted he was in actuality mildly afraid at the thought of not having her by his side, especially when he was so ill, and Jessie had agreed without haste, also revealing it had been Sam's and Meowth's anxious and red-faced suggestion they not share a bed.  

James was still laughing when Jessie returned from changing into a short purple nightgown laced with a pastel celestial pattern of moons and stars, leaping jovially into bed next to him, and throwing her arms around his neck and taking him with her as she echoed the laughter and fell onto her stomach.  

"It's good to hear you laugh again," chortled Jessie as James snuggled close to her side, closing his eyes with a grin.  

"It's good to be warm again!" he responded brightly, and folding his arms gingerly about Jessie's waist as she pulled the comforter tightly around both of them.  

"Your fever seems a little better!" she commented feeling his forehead with the back of her hand, "You look a thousand times better, you'll be back on your feet in no time.  Tired at all?"  

James' smile looked guilty in the dim light of the lamp as he answered, looking away as he allowed his body to sink lower into the comfortable softness of the mattress.  

"And I thought you were such a good liar, I'm getting weaker," he answered at first affectionately, then morosely, shaking his head in baleful regret.  

There was a long silence as Jessie sat up to turn off the pearly white porcelain lamp situated neatly atop the low wooden nightstand next to the coiling metal tendrils of vine that was the decorative headboard of the bed, leaving the only light the silver moon.  

"Are you scared?" she asked ponderingly, draping an arm about the already snoozing James' shoulders and hugging him close.  

"No, not at all.  Maybe I should be, but I'm not," he answered in a bleary voice muffled by pillows.  

"I don't think you should be, after all we've been through, especially you, it shouldn't be frightening.  I'm sure there were points in your life where you even wished for death.  I know I did…" Jessie added deferentially, glancing outside to the low bulbous moon hanging in the sky with its frozen and crisp razor edges over the black velvet of the ocean.  

"Of course I did.  Jess, I had dreams where I would yearn for you, I'd want you so badly I would break down in tears, but when I finally found you, I- I'd murder you, and wake up with nothing but the guilt.  I wished to die everyday, until I…" James had to pause to yawn broadly, "Wished every waking moment, until I got you back."

Jessie only then noticed as she cast a fond gaze down to her beloved, the deep black rings encircling his eyes and the slight weave of incessant pain through the fibers of his countenance, a barrier around the brilliant emerald green they ceased to shine, and her expression of bravery faltered as she caressed his forehead in her palm lovingly.  

"Go to sleep sweetheart, and I promise I'll be right here with you all night, and in the morning," she whispered, and James nodded, drawing in a deep breath and grimaced discreetly as he pressed closer into Jessie's side, and drifted quietly into sleep.

Jessie held him, soothed by his rhythmic and only faintly pained breathing which had finally steadied, and closed her eyes as visions from her own past, specters of a beautiful blue-haired young man clad in white, always just outside her grasp and outstretched hands, flashed across the blackness of her eyes.  His laughter always resounded across the heavens, but she could not hear it, his arms would always hold her tightly, but she could not feel him, she was deaf to his voice, and mute to call out to him, for he had been gone, a memory, a shadow, only a feeling left.  He was no longer a feeling as she held him in her arms, but bathed in the darkness of the room, James became a shadow once more.  She could not stay, as she too slowly lapsed tumultuously into sleep, the particularly vivid image of a dream occurring to her only once, where she walked a path of light in a sinuous white gown, to meet her beloved at last.

@---

_"You don't have to stay here anymore… You don't belong…"_

A singular beam of light pierced the darkness, and flooded his perception with blue as James slowly opened his eyes at hearing layers of whispers resonated within his consciousness. 

_"What's the point of living in a shadow of blood?"  _

_"Love isn't real, is it?  Is life?  Is death?  What is real?"_

_"Perhaps it was all doomed to begin with?  Everything is doomed to end sooner or later, just some before others."_

They blurred and melded to one, hurtling to a final explosion of sound reverberating in stabbing pain throughout his body as they halted abruptly, and James was deaf to his own hoarse, thick and choked cry of terror, held down firmly when he began to struggle.  

_"How long has he been like this?"  _

Samuel's calm voiced echoed from a different world, and James felt oddly calm as it became excruciating to attempt to breathe.  

_"It was only a little this morning, it just now started to get bad like this."  _

He tried valiantly to answer Jessie's brusque and harried retort as a veil of gray and blue light dithered and blurred into reality before his eyes, but his voice was savagely torn from his throat and all he could gasp through blood was a guttural moan of her name.  

"Shhhh," he scarcely perceived her temperate quieting, nor the adoring stroking of his hair as his eyes focused to see the formerly white cloth steeped in his own blood, "Hold still, don't try and move, just lie still and breathe."

James abided by the mournful request, inhaling as deeply as his chest would allow, but it constricted violently, forcing blood into his throat, which expelled air from his lungs with rasping coughs desperately.  

_"Oh Sam, he looks so awful...  Why would he be coughing up blood?"  _

Jessie's choked voice once again faded away to the sound of his thundering heart briefly as he lay struggling for breath through thick, coppery, crimson and the drenched towel, tears sliding down his cheeks from his tightly shut eyes_.  _

_"His body's simply breaking down, it's conceivable that it would cause some internal bleeding."  _

_"Some?  Does this look like some to you?"  _

_"The blood's gathered in either his lungs or stomach, and either way, this is just too much.  I don't think I'll be able to stop it."_

_"But… He's bleeding so much, he won't be…  Oh no…"  _

His heart began to slow, but no other sound was audible still as James clung to the tiny breaths he could inhale.

"I don't think he'll make it through the night Jess…  He's coming around now though, you should let Brock and Misty in, they've been waiting," Samuel's voice rang suddenly clear as he opened his eyes experimentally only in time to see, Jessie cover her eyes with one hand ruefully, pacing after standing raucously from her perch.  Her hand was pressed closed to her chest, and though James wished desperately to reach out to touch the evasive crimson specter as she gathered herself and allowed her rapid flight to carry her from the room, all he could control was a sad smile up to Sam as he dabbed the last of the blood from his lips.  

"Thank you…" he whispered, tentatively and agonizingly hauling his weak body to a more upright and comfortable location, "Thanks for everything, and promise me, Jessie's the last person who needs to be taken care of but, just look after her for me."  Samuel returned the reluctant smile, and stood, ruffling James' sweat laced hair affectionately as he answered quietly on his way out of the door, pausing only for a moment to glance at a deep red cherry wood framed photo of Jessie and James, a candid capture by Delia of their romping at the beach.  

"No problem, my friend, no problem at all.  Say!  Promise me then you'll put in a good word for your old man of a good friend when you get there eh?" were his only words as he quitted the dark chamber, leaving a smirking soul behind.

Misty leaned into Brock's side in the dim living room of the flat, huddled into his warmth against the empty echo of rain against the windows, both nestled beneath a blue plaid blanket upon the creamy white loveseat.  The small room accented in white and grey with its pale hardwood floors was bathed only in the blue light from the windows, and red from the blaze in the hearth in front of them, flickering and dancing with the melancholy shadows wrought by the sheer curtains.  The resonant ticking of a clock they knew not the location of ascended in a malevolent crescendo that was mercifully cut short as they heard the bedroom door open roughly, and a haggard looking Jessie slide gracefully and without a sound into the room.  

"You- You can see him now," she began reservedly, leaning against the wall as the shadows melded across her face, "But I have to tell you, he doesn't look very good.  He's been coughing up blood all day, and he only just regained consciousness.  He's…  He's just barely hanging on, and Sam thinks he won't even make it through the night so you'd better..."

The duo cast fleeting looks to each other as Jessie trailed off, turning her face to the darkness to discreetly wipe her eyes before turning back with a braver mien as she ushered them inside.  Brock hesitated for a moment at the doorframe, watching Misty streak in almost a blur to the bed in his exhausted and gritty eyes, sighing as she sunk into the chair at the head, covering her mouth with one hand and taking James' with the other before turning to Jessie.  He watched her banish her own tears from her eyes, his attention gaining her own and only when their eyes met did he smile sadly and place a hand on her shoulder.  

"You don't have to be brave, Jess," he said softly, and she shook her head in response.  

"No, yes I do, because that's who I am, that's who my James loves.  His Jessie… I know fully what's happening but there's a difference between them you know," retorted the fiery haired woman practically as she brushed past her friend.  

"Between what?" he queried before she left the room, turning to her slightly in desperation as she paused at the kitchen door.  

"Between being only hurt with the pain of losing someone you love, and letting it destroy you," was her only answer, and was gone from Brock's sight, melding into the darkness as the door shut, resounding in the deathly quiet room.

The soft weeping of his beloved Misty was the only thing that brought the young breeder back to his senses, and sighing as he gently padded into the room, finally brought himself to look upon the ailing form of his dying friend.  Misty held his inert hand, fighting her tears with all her being as she took it upon herself to cool his pale forehead with a cloth she held lovingly in her other palm, and Brock stopped at the doorway at finally realizing the truth behind Jessie's words.  James' pallid face was wrenched with pain, his teeth clenched in a valiant effort to stay his screams, and sweat beaded and trickled down his temples and cheeks, mingling with tears of anguish as he struggled to retain consciousness.  His black and glazed eyes had no fire behind them as they opened slightly at feeling Misty's halcyon stroking, his meager and excruciating gasps and groans ceasing as he held his old friend in blurred vision smiled at her, reaching a trembling hand upwards to touch her cheek.  

"Misty," he breathed with a small laugh, "It's good to see you…"  

"It's good to see you too!" she responded, smiling broadly as she cupped her palm affectionately over his, "We heard you were feeling a little under the weather so we thought we'd stop by and say hi."

James smiled appreciatively as he glanced in a solemn looking Brock's direction, closing his eyes happily and gently brushed away tears, sweeping Misty's loose and unkempt hair behind her ear.  

"Brock doesn't look too happy to be here, but thanks for coming!" he replied as brightly as he could manage, opening his eyes to look back up at the duo, "Thanks for coming to say goodbye.  It means a lot to me."  

There was a long silence as Misty broke into fresh tears, unable to speak, and Brock refusing to as he held her close, biting his lip apprehensively every time he felt something to say to keep it repressed until James' strained voice broke the serenity.  

"What?  More tears?  Come on Mist, I don't want you to be sad over me, I don't want anyone crying just because I won't be around.  Hey, Misty, come on, don't cry," James encouraged, assuaging the sobbing of his friend with his jovial but ever weakening tone.  

"I know, but I can't help it, you mean a lot to me.  I mean…  I don't hold a candle to Jessie but, both of you, you helped us, me and Brock, through some hard times.  I know it sounds a little sappy, but I really think I learned what it means to truly love someone watching you guys.  You even helped me cope with Ash's death, you've been such a good friend, so I still can't help crying.  I'm sorry," she answered softly, her reverent and sincerely devastated words finally moving Brock to his own tears.  

"Misty," James began, gripping her hand tightly to gain her attention, and speaking again only when her tearful turquoise eyes flitted fleetingly down to him, "Do you remember that day, when no one else would go with you to the cemetery?"

The rusty-haired young woman gasped at the remembrance and nodded dumbly, her only response to James' almost devious grin as he entwined his icy fingers into hers before continuing.  

"You walked alone, in the rain, just to talk to him.  That day was very hard for you, it was his birthday-" he spoke softly and nostalgically interrupted by a gasp and Misty's cry.  

"How did you know that?" she whispered hoarsely.  

"I know a lot you wouldn't possibly begin to believe," came the wry answer, and James continued before he could be stopped again, "But you stopped there at Ash's grave, you put one of my white roses there, by the way, I didn't mind you taking it but I would have given you a dozen had you just asked…  You- You cried, and you didn't know it, but I followed you there, I watched you in the rain, let it fall, and I just couldn't stand to see you hurt like that, not anymore.  Do you still remember?  I held you, as you cried, and… And I did too, I cried with you and held you in my arms until you just passed out from exhaustion, and I took you back to the house…  You didn't really remember much when you woke up, so I didn't tell you but…  I hope you remember it now, what I said to you…"

Misty had long since abandoned James' hand to clasp her own tightly over her mouth, closing her eyes to banish her tears and desperately fighting sobs as he trailed of painfully, closing his eyes and swallowing hard the mouthful of blood that had collected there and barely feeling its hot viscid trickle down his cheek.  

"That was you?  I-I thought that was a dream!  Oh James…  Oh god, James I still haven't forgotten!  Oh my god, that was you?  I've never forgotten that!" she moaned plaintively, Brock's muted sobbing lost to her ears as she collapsed to the bed, wrapping her arms about the stricken figure.  

"Remember me like that, Misty.  Okay?" he whispered in her ear with a smile, their eyes meeting as she pulled away from him sharply.

She watched in horror as James closed his eyes slowly, blood seeping through his fingers as he covered his mouth with one hand and finally clearing the image of the missing day for her.  It had been James who held her as she cried, spoke to her softly in comfort, salvaged her that day, and she could do nothing but gape in astonishment when her senses returned at last as she realized she was no longer crying for him.  

"It's getting worse," James remarked affably to Brock who was bent worriedly gathering the viscous red fluid into the cloth, "It's almost like my body's trying one last time to get rid of this poison.  Amazing thing isn't it?  The will to live, the connection between the heart, the mind, the soul, and the body to everything.  If you keep something from someone you love very much close to your heart, and never sever that connection, then a part of them lives on, for everyone.  You, Brock, my friend, remember me like that, and Ash too, in the same place you've put that little bit of your mother."

Brock's tears too, ceased, and all he could manage was a reluctant grin as he patted James' shoulder in a soothingly cordial gesture as he stood, wrapping an arm about Misty's waist.  

"You two take care of each other," was James' final smirking remark and they nodded simultaneously.  

"We will, we promise," Brock responded, and Misty gave the hand she held one last tight squeeze before getting up, her smile genuine, with a transitory grief for a simple friend.  

"Goodbye, James," she whispered tersely and her efforts to stop Brock from helping her up afterward were far too ostensible to deter him from it and leading her from the room.

James watched them go until their shadows melted from the dim walls, the tiny smirk never leaving his lips as his blurred eyes closed once more, letting the repressed pain escape in a quiet groan as he sensed Jessie perch worriedly at his side.  

"Jeez Jess, why didn't you ever tell me keeping a brave face when you're in agony hurts so damn bad?" he muttered amusedly.  

"Because if I had, you wouldn't have done it, and they needed that," she answered as she took his hand into hers, and adding hastily as an afterthought, "I-I hope you won't hurt much longer, I don't like seeing it."  

There was a deafening silence as Jessie stroked James' cheek obligatorily, her thin, etched smile fading rapidly in the dark light of the meek tempest spewed across the strata so that no moonlight would shine.  

"Ask Giovanni…" James repeated after a dream, his dying emerald eyes cloaked in shadow drawing open to look with a misplaced elegiac lucidness into Jessie's.

Her eyes had gazed at him and through him as she sat tremulously in the cold wooden chair at the bedside, legs crossed and arms folded as if she could sit there until time itself would stand still in wait for her.  Her expression odd, contorted, and twisted into several at his austere smile, and a final choked, but passionate whisper of her name were all that passed between them.  

"Jessie… I tried…" James whispered agonizingly, his grip upon Jessie's hand tightening as his eyes drooped unwillingly shut.  

"I know," she answered, craning delicately over him and kissing his forehead, "It's not your fault."  

"I know," he echoed amusedly, smiling as he suddenly felt Jessie's familiar and comforting warmth next to him, and her arms coiled delicately, a spiraling and intricate helix of temperate iron about his unfeeling body.  

"Any regrets?" she asked him softly, her voice from somewhere distant.  

"Only a few… Little things… I wish I'd had the chance to ask you to marry me," he began playfully, and Jessie's minute laugh was muted.  

"I would have said yes," she answered earnestly.  

"I knew you would…  I would have asked you too… And I think, I would have really liked to have been a father," James added with a mournful beam, opening his eyes only enough to look into the deep and smiling sapphires beside him.  

"I ought to hit you for that, but… You would have made such a wonderful one…" Jessie's reply held no signs of restraint of the pain or fury behind it, "This isn't fair…"

Shaking his head in agreement, James found he was unable to reply verbally, the scarlet flow from within his ravaged body clotting copiously to his vain attempts to breathe through it.  

"So what are you going to tell me, James?" asked Jessie solemnly at hearing his struggle for breath, "How do I remember someone who has meant more to me than life itself?  Someone I share a part of my heart, my soul, my being with?  How do I remember a love that has beaten so much, but could only triumph over death once?  And how am I supposed to carry with me only my memories?  Shadows…?  I can't live with only your shadow…"  

"Then don't let me become one," answered James initially, realizing with dread only after he had begun exactly what each of them was losing.  He paused for a moment, only to feel, and through the depths a tiny glimmer of a heat, that smoldered and gleamed with the light of the sun, his beacon, his hope and treasure, all that he held dear, blazed on in song.  James smiled; and knew her answer. 

"I'll tell you what, just remember us as that song…  Remember us as what we were the night we made love, because all we are, all we ever were, and all we ever will be, is one, and if we're one, then we can't ever exist as halves, can we?" he softly explained, mirroring Jessie's genuine smile as she embraced him tightly.  

"Of course not," she whispered into his ear, "We don't break promises, especially not ones we made in school as dumb kids huh?"  Managing a tender laugh, James shook his head and finally wrapped his arms weakly around Jessie's neck, one last time to breathe deeply the sweet scent of her, to hold her close, and feel that nothing else existed in the world.  

"Nothing like the vow of the unloved outcasts…  They always stick together…" he answered warmheartedly.  

"I love you, you dim-witted sissy boy," he scarcely heard her breathe.  

"I love you too, you tomboy ice princess," answered James, his hold weakening as his eyes slowly closed, "I… I'm kind of tired though…  I think I'll get some rest, will you be here when I wake up?"

Jessie's eyes opened widely once more, then closed tightly, silver stars falling and dying beneath a black horizon to her black emptiness.  

"Of course I will.  I'll always be here, James," Jessie whispered in return, not allowing the light to creep back into her vision, but then there was a brief fluttering before her eyes, and all sensations smoldered to nothingness as Jessie felt James' cold lips brush softly against her own.  She felt his essence within the darkness, a blaze of light amid tortured ice that they watched slip past them carried away by black waters, and felt suddenly as if nothing else were real but the song she could hear once more.  Nothing but their fire existed, a slain phoenix on the final flame of the sun as she returned the last kiss passionately, and with it the last of James' warmth died upon her lips.  

"I'll always be with you…  I love you, Jessie," his words rang ethereally through the crimson light that could then only be felt and the euphony of the silence that their melody transcended shattered.

Jessie opened her eyes slowly, and the rain sounded in her ears once again, the slithering hoary trails of water down the luminous blue windowpane shone valiantly through the white veil of the curtains, fluttering languidly in an unfelt wind about the deathly still room.  Propping herself up on her elbow, her eyes darted quickly once about the chamber, but immediately back down to James, who lay still and transcendent as his exuberant eyes met hers, the last of his radiance, his soul, and his life, glimmering joyfully within the emeralds.  Jessie returned his adoring smile, running her hand over his fevered, pale, and damp forehead and through his tangled tresses and lying back beside him carefully, their gazes never breaking, never faltering as they clung to the brilliance of it.  

"I love you too, James," she responded at last and holding him close in her arms, James's eyes slowly closed.

She held him as he slipped quietly from consciousness, felt and matched his slow breaths with her own, listening to the muffled and dull beats of their hearts, and the hollow pattering of rain against the roof and window.  It sounded deafeningly outside the quiet, and Jessie closed her eyes as well, breathing his scent one last time, and kissing his forehead as she let calm sleep claim her, one last utterance heard by nothing but the cold silver light arcing in a frozen halo about the moon to hide its brilliance away.  

"_Goodbye."_

@---

_"Can you hear me?  Please, come back, I need to say something to you…"_

The rain roared from a tear in the infinite dark sky, a silver note of voice piercing through the oceanic clouds and tearing a soul on the verge of eternal rest back into the realm of life.

_"I know you hear me.  Open your eyes if you want to hear what I have to say, and I know you do."_

James' eyes fluttered open experimentally, but quickly closed, finding they could see nothing but an inky blackness irradiant with a thousand colors and light.  

"No…  Please go…" James managed, his frail voice inaudible, "Just let me go…"

_"I can't do that without offering you an exit, an explanation?  Don't you want to know the truth?"_

James scowled and pressed closer into Jessie's warmth, shaking his head weakly in protest and trying desperately to fight the tears in his eyes.  

"No one can tell me the truth anymore…" he whispered to the gleaming blue and silver window, "Please, I've had enough…"

"_Poor James…" the voice chimed delicately, __"You don't understand…  I see, so you still think this is the only answer for you!  Poor thing…"_

"I… I can't… Please go, I just want this to end…" James hissed back agonizingly, consumed in black.

"_You're not listening to me, I've offered you guidance before and you accepted it, why not now?"_

There was a long pause, the soft echoing voice still ringing inside James ears, a clandestine reverb of light he could scarcely feel, and yet suddenly more familiar to him than his own.  

"You…" he breathed in veneration, "I remember now…  But why now?  I wanted my last words to be to her…"

"_I'm pleased you remember!  But you still aren't listening to me, I'm telling you there's another way!"_

"There can't be… I can't… Please, just let me die in peace…" he answered softly, a searing white-hot pain tearing through his body as he winced.

_"But I'm telling you that you don't have to die…"_

James forced his eyes open once more, unable to answer as he turned his blind eyes up to the shimmering window where he could barely perceive the white flutter of the curtains and rain.  The benevolent voice sounded incoherently again, and his world washed and flushed with vibrant color, until again, the dim cerulean and silver room blazed in his sight again, and James found he could speak easily.  

"I… I'm not dying?" he began bemusedly, "How is that possible?"

"_No, you are dying, you should be dead, but I want you to hear me out.  I can give your life back to you, just for a short period, so I can show you, so you can understand.  This darkness that plagues you, that you always feel, always dread, always hope your love will extinguish, and just when it seems it has, it hasn't.  I know why…"_

The pain ebbed, the darkness receded, and James wrapped an arm about himself as he slowly struggled to get up to better see out the window where the enigmatic tone seemed to be resonating from.  His mind wary, he lowered his eyes to the haloed moon, mockingly munificent and low in the velvet strata, and with the black, the fear fled as well, and he was suddenly very aware of Jessie's presence behind him and the aura of warmth and love surrounding it that felt once again pure. 

"I don't know why, but I believe you," he answered quietly at length, looking back down to Jessie's still form.

She seemed carved of stone, sealed perpetually with longing etched into her delicate twisted features, and her arms reaching out for him, intangible, unattainable, slipping away into the darkness forever.  

"I'll end it for us Jess…  I promise," he whispered to her, a beam of silver light falling upon her face as he stroked it, "What do I have to do?"

"_Good boy…  Come outside…"_

The door to the bedroom creaked open softly, and James' body slipped unfelt from Jessie's arms, carried it seemed by the force and will of the ancient voice into the pouring shards of white rain that cuffed his cold skin brutally.  The mysterious hold upon him released the moment he was completely outside and in full view of the ocean, and the snowy disc of the moon that billowed with light as it sunk beneath the black waters, and James slumped to his knees as he felt blood rise in his throat.  

"I came out here…" he managed harshly, black water dripping into his eyes, "Now what?"

"_Are you positive you want to know?  You'll die afterward, I can only delay your death a short period, __and you can't take Jessie with you," the voice asked as a single thin ray of light on the muddy ground before him.  _

"You said that before and it's not an object, of course I want to know, I've always hated not truly being able to tell Jessie why," James answered softly, coughing what blood was left in his mouth to his hand, "E-even if I have to leave after… If I can do that, I will die in peace."  

The rain continued in the ensuing silence as James waited for an answer, the heavy metallic drops falling hard upon his icy and unfeeling skin, washing the red stains from his hands and body and carrying them away in a silver stream, when abruptly, the arctic shards hurled from the sky became warmth.  

"_Good, now hold still and listen carefully, this is what must be done…"_

James looked up, petrified, as the silver beam wavered slightly, widening in a golden halo and sweeping broadly over his body, each drop of rain reflecting light in a thousand shades of brilliant shafts as they plummeted to earth.  Enclosing their chosen soul within their embrace, he was forced to shield his eyes with a cry of pain from the torrent of light, feeling each surge through his body, tearing away the black miasma with invisible hands that scraped and tore inside of him.  Each shot burningly through him, around him, swirled violently in a blazing cloud of wind about him which sealed before his wide eyes, leaving him in radiant white light and everything else just outside his grasp as he reached out feebly.  Touching every fraction of his body, he felt it seethe benevolently, his entire being alive with the energy, and it exploded as James could hold his eyes open no longer with a final note of a familiar melody, and fiery orbs of silver.

The shore stood still, echoing with James' scream, as the being of light shot forth from the soul they hailed from, carrying with it their prey of the darkness that lay claim to his life, and the young man fell gratefully forward upon himself, his labored breathing slowing as verve ebbed tentatively back to him.

_"I've returned to you your life, and now you will have just a short period to do as I ask, to come to meet me, so that I might show you."_

James looked up menacingly, his trembling body and pounding heart slowly steadying as he glared at the rim of gold just barely visible over the sea that had become a deep warm blue.  

"Why couldn't you have just told me?  Or why couldn't you have just come here?" he choked, his voice weak, "It would have been less painful that way…"  

"_So sorry!  But it's much more complicated than that, I am forbidden to come to you, and I could not possibly hope to simply tell you the workings of fate," the voice quipped amusedly and James' wide eyes turned back to the sky where the moon was fading.  _

"Fate?  This has to do with fate?" he asked incredulously, frowning to himself.  

"_All is bound by fate, and to fate, I can explain to you how you are, because you and your love are both very peculiar exceptions, however, only you may speak to me.  I will explain, then you may return here to at last tell your beloved Jessie truly why."_

"Jessie…" James whispered, closing his eyes and wrapping an arm about his stomach as he slowly struggled to his feet, the rain still pouring down his face and body as he looked valiantly to the sky, and smiled, "I'll come to you, just tell me how."

_"There will be a light in the east, alone you must follow it by day, keep it to your left by night, and you will know when you arrive, as will I…"_

James raised an eyebrow as a tiny blue flame burst from behind him, whirling around as it ricocheted from the sleeping world beneath it, leaving a blazing white stripe in the distance.  

_"I await your arrival with excitement, James…"_

His breath caught in his chest as the voice sounded one last time in the stillness, evaporating as suddenly and softly as it had come, and leaving the bewildered young man blinking in the frosty light.  

"What is going on?" he whispered to himself, once again hearing the gentle colliding waves as a warm wind tossed his hair gently about his face.  He realized then he could once again feel everything, the cool blades of grass beneath his bare feet, the gentle rain on his shoulders, and the leaves of his tree that danced and played cordially in the stillness, all melded to one quiescence, and James smiled broadly at feeling his powers return without the presence of black.

The young man took a single step forward, heading to his favorite tree, but stopped abruptly as he sensed something foreign in the euphoria of his renewed body and spirit, a familiar presence behind him, the last missing piece.  

"James…?" her soft and terrified voice sounded only once.  James stood frozen, but quickly turned around, tears welling in his eyes as Jessie stood before him, shining with the sacred light of everything she was, her arms half outstretched to him, as if she were afraid he might take flight away from her forever.  

"Oh Jessie…" he breathed to himself, reaching his own hand out slightly, and letting his tears fall as their eyes met, then calling her name as he flew, "Jessie!"  

Nothing came in response as they ran, only seeing, and hearing each other, and before James even heard Jessie call his name, she was in his arms, her own wrapped tightly around his neck as he embraced her, sweeping her in a single wide arc before falling to their knees, their overjoyed laughter and tears echoing across the calm water. 

They fell to the wet earth, holding each other close as the blue rays of dawn swept across the land, yet completely oblivious to anything but being together once again.  

"James! Oh James, I thought you were… How could this…?" Jessie began tearfully, but stopped as she could truly feel James' arms around her, and hers around him, burying her face into his neck, "Never mind, I don't care…  You're still here!"  James laughed and tightened his grip upon his beloved, looking up one last time to the beam of light beckoning him like a twisting rippling inviting ribbon in the paling sky.  

"I said I wanted to hold you forever didn't I?" he answered at last, "I wasn't lying, I'll always be here for you Jess…"  Jessie laughed and gave her beloved one last tight hug, kissing his cheek tenderly and wiping the tears from her cheeks furtively before answering.  

"Miracles really do happen," she breathed, backing away and looking into James' gleaming emerald eyes lovingly, stroking his cheek with the back of her hand, "You never cease to amaze me."  She pulled him back into her tender embrace, and gasped, for she held not the same haggard tempest torn man she once did, she held close in her arms and felt nothing but James, her love, half of the being they shared, pure, as if never touched by darkness at all.  

"James… Do- Do you feel-" she started apprehensively hesitant, as he finished her sentence with a nod.  

"I do feel it Jess, all I feel right now is you, like none of it ever happened, like we're just… Us again," he answered softly, "It-It's strange, I've never felt more in love with you than right now… Except that last night, before it all started."  

"I…I feel the same way, James… My god… What really happened to us?" Jessie replied solemnly, her words ringing in the pale fingers of platinum dawn just beginning to creep toward the duo.

The voice once again rang in James head in memory, telling him of the blackness unknowable, that had torn him from something that even he could not comprehend, and helped him to sever himself from the path of light he had walked only in dreams.  

"_Then I never really came back…" he thought to himself bitterly, "__That voice… I can only hear it because I was the one the darkness chose, I let it take me once, and I've been slowly losing myself ever since…  That voice brought me back, how?  …It had to take the darkness to heal me, that's it!  That's why we feel like this now!  But, what the hell really happened after that night?"  _

"I-I don't know, but I promise you, I'm going to find out, you mean too much not to…  You're everything to me… I love you more than anything Jessica," James swore fervently, his hands on Jessie's shoulders to ease her away so he could look into her pained eyes.  

"And I love you, James…" she breathed, leaning forward and brushing her fingers delicately over his cheek, as his eyelids slowly dropped with hers, "I love you so much, I want to be close to you now, when we feel like this, and I never want it to end."

The light from their eyes was closed away as they did, their lips meeting ardently for a clandestine kiss in the ebon light before dawn, hiding from its coiling tendrils for one stolen moment their united hearts.  Jessie and James stole back inside the small flat before the waking sun rose, and made love with unbridled, untainted passion, feeling once again as one, but then, only as one.  Neither darkness nor light dared to touch the moment, and let it stand, two hearts and bodies as the other conjoined, all forsaken but the touch of a lover and a name whispered on hot breath in the silent darkness lying in wait before dawn.  A zenith seemed suspended in eternity and an eon, the final explosion of pleasure and brilliance before James lay with Jessie in his arms, pleasantly exhausted, as his damp hair fell resiliently across his smiling face.  The warmth inside of her body filled his consciousness, remaining as her soft lips traced once last time enticing and gradually across his bare chest, then to his shoulders and once on his lips before his love, his life, his lover curled contentedly against James' naked body and drifted to sleep, fingers entwined delicately in his.  

Wishing desperately that they could stay frozen in time, James cried softly as he kissed Jessie's forehead gently, then taking his hands from hers, rubbed them together lightly until a slight green shimmer glowed from them.  

"I'm sorry Jess," he whispered as he brushed the sleep powder lightly over her, careful not to breathe it in as he watched the last of the brilliance fade into nothingness, and Jessie's body release completely, "I have to go."  

He kissed her slumbering lips once more affectionately, and ran a hand through her hair as he slipped from her grasp, tucking the satin comforter tightly about her lithe form.  James smiled as he dressed in his favorite pair of jeans and a black sweater through his tears, as he packed a small duffel bag for himself, and laughed to himself as he sat down at the small desk with Jessie's favorite pen and a sheet of her stationary, a purple rose themed one. 

James filled the page with a letter, and by the time he had finished scripting it, his tears had stopped, but he signed his name slowly, not wanting to complete it.  The pen hung suspended as he lifted it off the "S" at the end of his name, and James closed his eyes, dropping it and opening the drawer to retrieve an envelope, which he addressed to Jessie in large looping cursive.  He held it tightly as he turned, gently walking to the beside and craning over his beloved's peaceful form, kissing her forehead and slipping the letter into the hand that rested upon the pillow.  

"I love you…  I'll always love you, Jess," he whispered with a smile, caressing her cheek and he hefted his bag onto his shoulder, "See you when I see you."

James scratched the soundly sleeping Meowth behind the ears as he padded soundlessly through the living room where the specters of the white curtains still danced on the walls, and the dead embers of the fire blazed futilely in their bed of ash.  He stopped to cover Brock, Misty, and Samuel with the blankets they slept beneath, smiling and shaking his head reproachfully at them, and stood to survey the home one last time.  The door to the white and gray tiled kitchen was still open, the remnants of tea littered about the table, the small room he stood in, which would normally be open from every window, their sheer white curtains fluttering listlessly in the ocean breeze, closed against the rain, which had stopped, leaving the road leading up and away from Pallet Town clear and shining in the early morning's light.

James breathed in deeply, reveling only briefly in the feeling of being able to do so, and shouldering his bag, he opened the door swiftly, and stepped out into the fragrant and brisk air after the storm.  

"See you around guys," he whispered longingly, and closed the door, stopping only briefly to look out upon the road ahead of him, and the white beacon of light hurtling into the sky, "And so begins this little adventure…"  

James resisted the urge to look back, and stepped boldly forward, fading away on the horizon until his shadow melded with the light, the presence of the voice thick in his senses, watching him as he returned.  Banishing any fear of apprehension, James let the warmth of the day seep into his body, trotting happily along the side of the road as he realized his body was truly completely renewed, leaping into the air and initiating a sprint toward his answers, as the sun rose, following the light in the East.

So what is the real truth behind the Twilight Project? Stay turned for chapter 4 The Chariot and the Hall of Mirrors coming soon!


End file.
